Template:Short description Template:For Template:Infobox UNESCO World Heritage Site The Acropolis of Athens (Template:Transl-grc; Template:Langx) is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens, Greece, and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historical significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. The word Acropolis is Template:Ety.<ref>acro-. (n.d.). In Greek, Acropolis means "Highest City". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved September 29, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: Template:Webarchive Quote: "[From Greek akros, extreme; see ak- in Indo-European roots.]"</ref> The term acropolis is generic and there are many other acropoleis in Greece. During ancient times the Acropolis of Athens was also more properly known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man Cecrops, the supposed first Athenian king.

While there is evidence that the hill was inhabited as early as the 4th millennium BC, it was Pericles (Template:Circa–429 BC) in the fifth century BC who coordinated the construction of the buildings whose present remains are the site's most important ones, including the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike.<ref>Hurwit 2000, p. 87.</ref><ref>"History" Template:Webarchive, Odysseus. Retrieved 2 December 2012.</ref> The Parthenon and the other buildings were seriously damaged during the 1687 siege by the Venetians during the Morean War when gunpowder being stored by the then Turkish rulers in the Parthenon was hit by a Venetian bombardment and exploded.<ref>Nicholas Reeves and Dyfri Williams, "The Parthenon in Ruins" Template:Webarchive, British Museum Magazine 57 (spring/summer 2007), pp. 36–38. Retrieved 2 December 2012.</ref>

HistoryEdit

File:View of the Acropolis of Athens from Mt Lycabettus on April 22, 2022.jpg
The Acropolis of Athens as seen from Mount Lycabettus
The wooded Hill of the Nymphs is half-visible on its right, and Philopappos Hill on the left, immediately behind. The Philopappos Monument is seen here where, in the distant background, the coast of Peloponnese meets the waters of the Saronic Gulf.

Early settlementEdit

The Acropolis is located on a flattish-topped rock that rises Template:Cvt above sea level in the city of Athens, with a surface area of about Template:Cvt. While the earliest artifacts date to the Middle Neolithic era, there have been documented habitations in Attica from the Early Neolithic period (6th millennium BC).

There can be little doubt that a Mycenaean megaron palace stood upon the hill during the late Bronze Age. Nothing of this structure survives except, probably, a single limestone column base and pieces of several sandstone steps.<ref name="Castleden">Template:Cite book</ref> Soon after the palace was constructed, a Cyclopean massive circuit wall was built, 760 meters long, up to 10 meters high, and ranging from 3.5 to 6 meters thick. From the end of the Helladic IIIB (1300–1200 BC) on,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> this wall would serve as the main defense for the acropolis until the 5th century.<ref>Hurwit 2000, pp. 74–75.</ref> The wall consisted of two parapets built with large stone blocks and cemented with an earth mortar called emplekton (Greek: ἔμπλεκτον).<ref>ἔμπλεκτος Template:Webarchive, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library.</ref> The wall uses typical Mycenaean conventions in that it followed the natural contour of the terrain and its gate, which was towards the south, was arranged obliquely, with a parapet and tower overhanging the incomers' right-hand side, thus facilitating defense. There were two lesser approaches up the hill on its north side, consisting of steep, narrow flights of steps cut in the rock. Homer is assumed to refer to this fortification when he mentions the "strong-built house of Erechtheus" (Odyssey 7.81). At some time before the 13th century BC, an earthquake caused a fissure near the northeastern edge of the Acropolis. This fissure extended some 35 meters to a bed of soft marl in which a well was dug.<ref>Hurwit 2000, p. 78.</ref> An elaborate set of stairs was built and the well served as an invaluable, protected source of drinking water during times of siege for some portion of the Mycenaean period.<ref>"The springs and fountains of the Acropolis hill" Template:Webarchive, Hydria Project. Retrieved 2 December 2012.</ref>

Archaic AcropolisEdit

Template:Redirect

File:Primitive Acropolis with the Pelargicon.jpg
Primitive Acropolis with the Pelargicon and the Old Temple of Athena.
File:Aufriß des alten Athena-Tempels.jpg
Elevation view of a proposed reconstruction of the Old Temple of Athena. Built around 525 BC, it stood between the Parthenon and the Erechtheum. Fragments of the sculptures in its pediments are in the Acropolis Museum.

Not much is known about the architectural appearance of the Acropolis until the Archaic era. During the 7th and the 6th centuries BC, the site was controlled by Kylon during the failed Kylonian revolt,<ref name="Pomeroy1999">Template:Cite book</ref> and twice by Peisistratos; each of these was attempts directed at seizing political power by coups d'état. Apart from the Hekatompedon mentioned later, Peisistratos also built an entry gate or propylaea.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Nevertheless, it seems that a nine-gate wall, the Enneapylon,<ref>"Acropolis fortification wall" Template:Webarchive, Odysseus. Retrieved 2 December 2012.</ref> had been built around the acropolis hill and incorporated the biggest water spring, the Clepsydra, at the northwestern foot.

A temple to Athena Polias, the tutelary deity of the city, was erected between 570 and 550 BC. This Doric limestone building, from which many relics survive, is referred to as the Hekatompedon (Greek for "hundred–footed"), Ur-Parthenon (German for "original Parthenon" or "primitive Parthenon"), H–Architecture or Bluebeard temple, after the pedimental three-bodied man-serpent sculpture, whose beards were painted dark blue. Whether this temple replaced an older one or just a sacred precinct or altar is not known. Probably, the Hekatompedon was built where the Parthenon now stands.<ref>Hurwit 2000, p. 111.</ref>

Between 529 and 520 BC yet another temple was built by the Pisistratids, the Old Temple of Athena, usually referred to as the Arkhaios Neōs (ἀρχαῖος νεώς, "ancient temple"). This temple of Athena Polias was built upon the Dörpfeld foundations,<ref>Hurwit 2000, p. 121.</ref> between the Erechtheion and the still-standing Parthenon. The Arkhaios Neōs was destroyed as part of the Achaemenid destruction of Athens during the Second Persian invasion of Greece during 480–479 BC; however, the temple was probably reconstructed during 454 BC, since the treasury of the Delian League was transferred in its opisthodomos. The temple may have been burnt down during 406/405 BC as Xenophon mentions that the old temple of Athena was set afire. Pausanias does not mention it in his 2nd century AD Description of Greece.<ref>Template:In lang [1] Template:Webarchive, Retrieved 5 June 2012.</ref>

Around 500 BC the Hekatompedon was dismantled to make place for a new grander building, the Older Parthenon (often referred to as the Pre-Parthenon or Early Parthenon). For this reason, Athenians decided to stop the construction of the Olympieion temple which was connoted with the tyrant Peisistratos and his sons, and, instead, used the Piraeus limestone destined for the Olympieion to build the Older Parthenon. To accommodate the new temple, the south part of the summit was cleared, made level by adding some 8,000 two-ton blocks of limestone, a foundation Template:Cvt deep at some points, and the rest was filled with soil kept in place by the retaining wall. However, after the victorious Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, the plan was revised and marble was used instead. The limestone phase of the building is referred to as Pre-Parthenon I and the marble phase as Pre-Parthenon II. In 485 BC, construction stalled to save resources as Xerxes became king of Persia, and war seemed imminent.<ref>Manolis Korres, Topographic Issues of the Acropolis Template:Webarchive, Archaeology of the City of Athens; Retrieved 7 June 2012.</ref> The Older Parthenon was still under construction when the Persians invaded and sacked the city in 480 BC. The building was burned and looted, along with the Ancient Temple and practically everything else on the rock.<ref>"Athens, Pre-Parthenon (Building)" Template:Webarchive, Perseus Digital Library. Retrieved 3 December 2012.</ref><ref>Dörpfeld, W: Der aeltere Parthenon, Ath. Mitt, XVII, 1892, pp. 158–189. Template:In lang.</ref> After the Persian crisis had subsided, the Athenians incorporated many architectural parts of the unfinished temple (unfluted column drums, triglyphs, metopes, etc.) into the newly built northern curtain wall of the Acropolis, where they served as a prominent "war memorial" and can still be seen today. The devastated site was cleared of debris. Statuary, cult objects, religious offerings, and unsalvageable architectural members were buried ceremoniously in several deeply dug pits on the hill, serving conveniently as a fill for the artificial plateau created around the Classical Parthenon. This "Persian debris" was the richest archaeological deposit excavated on the Acropolis by 1890.<ref>Kavvadias, Panagiotis, Kawerau, Georg: Die Ausgrabung der Akropolis vom Jahre 1885 bis zum Jahre 1890, Athens, 1906 Template:In lang.</ref>

The Periclean building programEdit

File:The Parthenon in Athens.jpg
The Parthenon, as seen from the north-west in 1978

After winning at Eurymedon during 468 BC, Cimon and Themistocles ordered the reconstruction of the southern and northern walls of the Acropolis. Most of the major temples, including the Parthenon, were rebuilt by order of Pericles during the so-called Golden Age of Athens (460–430 BC). Phidias, an Athenian sculptor, and Ictinus and Callicrates, two famous architects, were responsible for the reconstruction.<ref>"Ictinus and Callicrates with Phidias" Template:Webarchive, Architecture Week. Retrieved 3 December 2012.</ref>

During 437 BC, Mnesicles started building the Propylaea, a monumental gate at the western end of the Acropolis with Doric columns of Pentelic marble, built partly upon the old Propylaea of Peisistratos.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> These colonnades were almost finished during 432 BC and had two wings, the northern one decorated with paintings by Polygnotus.<ref name="McCulloch1841">Template:Cite book</ref> About the same time, south of the Propylaea, building started on the small Ionic Temple of Athena Nike in Pentelic marble with tetrastyle porches, preserving the essentials of Greek temple design. After an interruption caused by the Peloponnesian War, the temple was finished during the time of Nicias' peace, between 421 BC and 409 BC.<ref name="Mark1993">Template:Cite book</ref>

File:Erechtheum Acropolis Athens.jpg
The Erechtheion, viewed from the south-west, looking across the remains of the Old Temple in 2015

Construction of the elegant temple of Erechtheion in Pentelic marble (421–406 BC) was by a complex plan which took account of the extremely uneven ground and the need to circumvent several shrines in the area. The entrance, facing east, is lined with six Ionic columns. Unusually, the temple has two porches, one on the northwest corner borne by Ionic columns, the other, to the southwest, supported by huge female figures or caryatids. The eastern part of the temple was dedicated to Athena Polias, while the western part, serving the cult of the archaic king Poseidon-Erechtheus, housed the altars of Hephaestus and Voutos, brother of Erechtheus. Little is known about the original plan of the interior, which was destroyed by fire during the first century BC and has been rebuilt several times.<ref>Thomas Sakoulas, "Erechtheion" Template:Webarchive, Ancient-Greece.org. Retrieved 7 December 2012.</ref><ref>Venieri, "Erechtheion" Template:Webarchive, Odysseus. Retrieved 7 December 2012.</ref>

During the same period, a combination of sacred precincts including the temples of Athena Polias, Poseidon, Erechtheus, Cecrops, Herse, Pandrosos and Aglauros, with its Kore Porch (Porch of the Maidens) or Caryatids' Balcony was begun.<ref>"The Acropolis of Athens" Template:Webarchive. Retrieved 9 February 2013.</ref> Between the temple of Athena Nike and the Parthenon, there was the Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia (or the Brauroneion), the goddess represented as a bear and worshipped in the deme of Brauron. According to Pausanias, a wooden statue or xoanon of the goddess and a statue of Artemis made by Praxiteles during the 4th century BC were both in the sanctuary.<ref>"The Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia" Template:Webarchive, Acropolis Museum. Retrieved 9 February 2013.</ref>

Behind the Propylaea, Phidias' gigantic bronze statue of Athena Promachos ("Athena who fights in the front line"), built between 450 BC and 448 BC, dominated. The base was Template:Cvt high, while the total height of the statue was Template:Cvt. The goddess held a lance, the gilt tip of which could be seen as a reflection by crews on ships rounding Cape Sounion, and a giant shield on the left side, decorated by Mys with images of the fight between the Centaurs and the Lapiths.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Other monuments that have left almost nothing visible to the present day are the Chalkotheke, the Pandroseion, Pandion's sanctuary, Athena's altar, Zeus Polieus's sanctuary and, from Roman times, the circular Temple of Roma and Augustus.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Hellenistic and Roman PeriodEdit

File:Acropolis 3D.stl
3-D model of the Acropolis in 165 AD (click to rotate)

During the Hellenistic and Roman periods, many of the existing buildings in the area of the Acropolis were repaired to remedy damage from age and occasionally war.<ref name="autogenerated54">Travlos, John, Pictorial Dictionary of Ancient Athens, London: Thames and Hudson, 1971. p. 54.</ref> Monuments to foreign kings were erected, notably those of the Attalid kings of Pergamon Attalos II (in front of the NW corner of the Parthenon), and Eumenes II, in front of the Propylaea. These were rededicated during the early Roman Empire to Augustus or Claudius (uncertain) and Agrippa, respectively.<ref>Hurwit 2000, p. 278.</ref> Eumenes was also responsible for constructing a stoa on the south slope, similar to that of Attalos in the agora below.<ref>"The Stoa of Eumenes" Template:Webarchive, The Acropolis of Athens. Greek Thesaurus. Retrieved 9 February 2013.</ref>

During the Julio-Claudian period, the Temple of Roma and Augustus, a small, round edifice about 23 meters from the Parthenon, was to be the last significant ancient construction on the summit of the rock.<ref>Hurwit 2000, p. 279.</ref> Around the same time, on the north slope, in a cave next to the one dedicated to Pan since the Classical period, a sanctuary was founded where the archons dedicated to Apollo on assuming office.<ref>Nulton, Peter, The Sanctuary of Apollo Hypoakraios and Imperial Athens, Archaeologia Transatlantica XXI, 2003.</ref> During 161 AD, on the south slope, the Roman Herodes Atticus built his grand amphitheater or odeon. It was destroyed by the invading Herulians a century later but was reconstructed during the 1950s.<ref name="Steves2011">Template:Cite book</ref>

During the 3rd century, under threat from a Herulian invasion, repairs were made to the Acropolis walls, and the Beulé Gate was constructed to restrict entrance in front of the Propylaea, thus returning the Acropolis to use as a fortress.<ref name="autogenerated54"/>

Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman PeriodEdit

File:Venetian siege of Acropolis.jpg
Depiction of the Venetian siege of the Acropolis of Athens during 1687.

During the Byzantine period, the Parthenon was used as a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.<ref>"The Partenon" Template:Webarchive, Ancient Greece. Retrieved 9 February 2013.</ref> During the Latin Duchy of Athens, the Acropolis functioned as the city's administrative center, with the Parthenon as its cathedral, and the Propylaea as part of the ducal palace.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A large tower was added, the Frankopyrgos (Frankish Tower), demolished during the 19th century.<ref name="Neils2005">Template:Cite book</ref>

After the Ottoman conquest of Greece, the Propylaea were used as the garrison headquarters of the Turkish army,<ref>Hellenistic ministry of culture, History of the Acropolis of Athens Template:Webarchive.</ref> the Parthenon was converted into a mosque and the Erechtheum was turned into the governor's private harem. The buildings of the Acropolis suffered significant damage during the 1687 siege by the Venetians in the Morean War. The Parthenon, which was being used as a gunpowder magazine, was hit by artillery and damaged severely.<ref>"Acropolis, Athens: Long description" Template:Webarchive, UNESCO. Retrieved 9 February 2013.</ref>

File:Akropolis by Leo von Klenze.jpg
Idealized reconstruction of the Acropolis and Areios Pagos in Athens, Leo von Klenze, 1846.

During subsequent years, the Acropolis was a site of bustling human activity with many Byzantine, Frankish, and Ottoman structures. The dominant feature during the Ottoman period was a mosque inside the Parthenon, complete with a minaret.

The Acropolis was besieged thrice during the Greek War of Independence—two sieges from the Greeks in 1821–1822 and one from the Ottomans in 1826–1827. A new bulwark named after Odysseas Androutsos was built by the Greeks between 1822 and 1825 to protect the recently rediscovered Klepsydra spring, which became the sole fresh water supply of the fortress.

Independent GreeceEdit

File:Francis Frith, The Acropolis, 1839–98, Albumen silver print, 15.2 x 20.6 cm, MoMA, 187.1972.png
The Acropolis (photo using albumen silver print) by 19th century photographer Francis Frith

After independence, most features that dated from the Byzantine, Frankish, and Ottoman periods were cleared from the site in an attempt to restore the monument to its original form, "cleansed" of all later additions.<ref>Nicholas Reeves and Dyfri Williams, "The Parthenon in Ruins", Template:Webarchive, British Museum Magazine, No. 57, 2007, pp. 36–38. Retrieved 9 February 2013.</ref> The Parthenon mosque was demolished in 1843, and the Frankish Tower in 1875. German Neoclassicist architect Leo von Klenze was responsible for the restoration of the Acropolis in the 19th century, according to German historian Wolf Seidl, as described in his book Bavarians in Greece.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Some antiquities from the Acropolis were exhibited in the old Acropolis Museum, which was built in the second half of the 19th century.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

At the beginning of the Axis occupation of Greece in 1941, German soldiers raised the Nazi German War Flag over the Acropolis. It would be taken down by Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas in one of the first acts of resistance. In 1944 Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou arrived on the Acropolis to celebrate liberation from the Nazis.

Archaeological remainsEdit

File:Athen Akropolis (18512008726).jpg
Remains of the Theatre of Dionysus as of 2007. View from the west.

The entrance to the Acropolis was a monumental gateway termed the Propylaea. To the south of the entrance is the tiny Temple of Athena Nike. At the centre of the Acropolis is the Parthenon or Temple of Athena Parthenos (Athena the Virgin). East of the entrance and north of the Parthenon is the temple known as the Erechtheum. South of the platform that forms the top of the Acropolis there are also the remains of the ancient, though often remodelled, Theatre of Dionysus. A few hundred metres away, there is the now partially reconstructed Odeon of Herodes Atticus.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Many of the valuable ancient artifacts are situated in the Acropolis Museum, which resides on the southern slope of the same rock, 280 metres from the Parthenon.<ref>"The Acropolis Museum" Template:Webarchive. Retrieved 9 February 2013.</ref>

Site planEdit

Site plan of the Acropolis at Athens showing the major archaeological remains. <imagemap> File:AcropolisatathensSitePlan.png|right|600px|alt=Site plan of the Acropolis at Athens poly 332 198 447 158 468 217 352 254 Parthenon poly 305 130 374 115 385 146 314 167 Old Temple of Athena poly 346 116 389 108 375 71 334 82 Erechtheum poly 248 137 266 160 252 168 243 151 Statue of Athena Promachos poly 104 164 193 115 225 200 158 224 Propylaea (Acropolis of Athens) poly 132 223 152 226 150 257 136 255 Temple of Athena Nike poly 168 256 193 261 188 278 166 277 Eleusinion poly 191 213 258 199 245 259 185 246 Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia or Brauroneion poly 248 260 315 276 321 245 255 231 Chalkotheke poly 322 78 337 97 343 111 310 122 304 108 Pandroseion poly 258 81 281 73 288 96 266 102 Arrephorion poly 402 102 428 100 435 120 408 127 Altar of Athena Polias poly 462 120 500 96 540 96 533 136 506 146 464 149 Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus poly 574 155 641 184 628 212 564 183 Sanctuary of Pandion poly 26 384 56 336 88 314 129 313 160 337 174 370 175 399 139 416 72 417 25 402 Odeon of Herodes Atticus poly 182 381 462 384 460 419 179 415 Stoa of Eumenes poly 395 325 469 309 478 356 406 372 Sanctuary of Asclepius or Asclepieion poly 484 397 492 356 516 323 555 297 596 293 642 300 670 311 650 345 683 389 540 457 Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus poly 655 343 738 276 807 356 722 425 Odeon of Pericles poly 564 460 678 414 684 442 627 505 586 515 Temenos of Dionysus Eleuthereus poly 300 32 332 42 323 67 296 64 Aglaureion </imagemap>

  1. Parthenon
  2. Old Temple of Athena
  3. Erechtheum
  4. Statue of Athena Promachos
  5. Propylaea
  6. Temple of Athena Nike
  7. Eleusinion
  8. Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia or Brauroneion
  9. Chalkotheke
  10. Pandroseion
  11. Arrephorion
  12. Altar of Athena
  13. Sanctuary of Zeus Polieus
  14. Sanctuary of Pandion
  15. Odeon of Herodes Atticus
  16. Stoa of Eumenes
  17. Sanctuary of Asclepius or Asclepieion
  18. Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus
  19. Odeon of Pericles
  20. Temenos of Dionysus Eleuthereus
  21. Mycenaean fountain

The Acropolis Restoration ProjectEdit

File:Acropolis under construction 2014.jpg
View east toward the Acropolis under construction during summer 2014.

The Acropolis Restoration Project began in 1975 to reverse the decay of centuries of attrition, pollution, destruction from military actions, and misguided past restorations. The project included the collection and identification of all stone fragments, even small ones, from the Acropolis and its slopes, and the attempt was made to restore as much as possible using reassembled original material (anastylosis), with new marble from Mount Pentelicus used sparingly. All restoration was made using titanium dowels and is designed to be completely reversible, in case future experts decide to change things. A combination of cutting-edge modern technology and extensive research and reinvention of ancient techniques were used.<ref name=umich>Fani Mallouchou-Tufano, "The Restoration of the Athenian Acropolis" Template:Webarchive, University of Michigan. Retrieved 9 February 2013.</ref>

The Parthenon colonnades, largely destroyed by Venetian bombardment during the 17th century, were restored, with many wrongly assembled columns now properly placed. The roof and floor of the Propylaea were partly restored, with sections of the roof made of new marble and decorated with blue and gold inserts, as in the original.<ref name=umich/> Restoration of the Temple of Athena Nike was completed in 2010.<ref>"2010–2011, The progress of restoration on the Acropolis", Template:Webarchive, The Acropolis Restoration News, July 2011. Retrieved 9 February 2013.</ref>

A total of 2,675 tons of architectural members were restored, with 686 stones reassembled from fragments of the originals, 905 patched with new marble, and 186 parts made entirely of new marble. A total of 530 cubic meters of new Pentelic marble were used.<ref>"Acropolis Restoration Project-Lecture by Maria Ioannidou, Director, Acropolis Restoration Service", Template:Webarchive, Columbia University. Retrieved 9 February 2013.</ref>

In 2021, the addition of new reinforced concrete paths to the site to improve accessibility caused controversy among archaeologists.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Cultural significanceEdit

File:Acropolis of Athens at dusk.jpg
View of the Acropolis at dusk from Mount Lycabettus in 2023

Every four years, the Athenians had a festival called the Great Panathenaea that rivaled the Olympic Games in popularity. During the festival, a procession (believed to be depicted on the Parthenon frieze) traveled through the city via the Panathenaic Way and culminated on the Acropolis. There, a new robe of woven wool (peplos) was placed on either the statue of Athena Polias in the Erechtheum (during the annual Lesser Panathenaea) or the statue of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon (during the Great Panathenaea, held every four years).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Within the later tradition of Western civilization and Classical revival, the Acropolis, from at least the mid-18th century on, has often been invoked as a critical symbol of the Greek legacy and of the glories of Classical Greece.

Most of the artifacts from the temple are housed today in the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the ancient rock.

GeologyEdit

The Acropolis is a klippe consisting of two lithostratigraphic units: the Athens schist and the overlying Acropolis limestone.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The Athens schist is a soft reddish rock dating from the late Cretaceous period. The original sediments were deposited in a river delta approximately 72 million years ago. The Acropolis limestone dates from the late Jurassic period, predating the underlying Athens schist by about 30 million years. The Acropolis limestone was thrust over the Athens schist by compressional tectonic forces, forming a nappe or overthrust sheet. Erosion of the limestone nappe led to the eventual detachment of the Acropolis, forming the present-day feature. Where the Athens schist and the limestone meet there are springs and karstic caves.

Many of the hills in the Athens region were formed by the erosion of the same nappe as the Acropolis. These include the hills of Lykabettos, Areopagus, and Mouseion.

The marble used for the buildings of the Acropolis was sourced from the quarries of Mount Pentelicus, a mountain to the northeast of the city.

Geological instabilityEdit

The limestone that the Acropolis is built upon is unstable because of the erosion and tectonic shifts that the region is prone to. This instability may cause rock slides that cause damage to the historic site. Various measures have been implemented to protect the site, including retaining walls, drainage systems, and rock bolts. These measures work to counter the natural processes that threaten the historic site.

GalleryEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Notes Template:Reflist

Bibliography

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project Template:Library resources box

  • {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}

  • {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}

  • {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}

  • {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}

  • {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}

  • {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}

|CitationClass=web }}

  • {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}

  • {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}

  • {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} Videos

Template:Navboxes Template:Authority control