Athens Recap

Today we had to leave for Athens, but before we left, we made sure to see a few more of the ruins!! The first place we went to was Hadrian's Arch. Hadrian's Arch is a monument that split the Ancient city into the city of Thesus and the city of Hadrian(pretty much the new and the old). It was also used as part of a church in the middle ages and in 1778 it was converted into the gate as part of the defensive wall around Athens.

From there we walked through the gate and into the Olympieion. This contains parts of villages, a Roman Bath, and of course, the Temple of Olympian Zeus. The temple of Zeus is the iconic image of about 16 columns standing and one column knocked over. The column that fell actually only fell fairly recently, in 1852. Once the column fell, no one moved it or tried to put it back up. The temple has simply been left to stand as it is. While standing, it was one of the largest temples in the Ancient world. It once had 20 columns on the long side and 8 on the short side (the Parthenon has 17 columns on the long side and 8 on the short).

We moved from the Temple of Olympian Zeus to the Gateway of Olympieion and through to the classical houses and the Roman Bath.

Our last stop before heading to the airport was Parliament. At Parliament we were able to watch the end of the changing of the guards before spending a little bit of time in the metro looking at the ruins that were discovered when the metro system was built for the 2004 Olympics.

Day 1 more pictures