Acropolis, Parthenon

Built entirely in Marble between 448 and 438 BC, from designs by the Architects Ictinus and Callicrates, the Periclean Structure symbolized the political, civil and religious identity of Athens. The Structure was built in Pentelic Marble at the site of an earlier temple, the Archaic hekatompedon ("31 meter long temple"). The Parthenon is well preserved, despite its travailed past: it was sacked by the Christians after the Edict of Theodosios I, and was transformed into a church in the 6th Century, into a mosque in the 15th and into an arsenal in the 17th, when a cannonball ignited the warehoused gunpowder, which exploded and blasted the building's southern side. The Parthenon is an imposing 70 on 31 meters Doric peripteral octastyle temple with hexastyle pronaos and opisthodomos. The peristasis surrounded a cella that was divided into two non-communicating parts, opening into the hexastyle pronaos and opisthodomos. In the larger cella facing east, a double row of Doric Columns surrounded on three sides the Marble base that once held the Monumental cult statue of Athena Parthenos that was created by Phidias in 438 BC. The smaller cella facing west was the actual Parthenon or 'Hall of the Virgins'. This cella was adorned by four Ionic Columns. The Decoration works of the temple were conducted in the years 438 – 432 BC, some of which were designed and sculpted by Phidias himself. The Structure had east and west pediments depicting mythic scenes; There were 92 metopes of a Doric frieze depicting epic and mythological metaphors. The Ionic frieze of the cella, a novelty in Greek art, depicted competitions that were related to the Panathenaic Festival.