Acropolis of Athens

The Acropolis of Athens is a flat-topped limestone outcrop, roughly three hectares of usable ground, standing 150 metres above sea level and around seventy metres above the streets below. People have been building on it since the Neolithic period. Almost everything visible today, however, is the work of a single generation in the 5th century BCE, and it has since survived sieges, two religious conversions, an explosion, and two hundred years of restoration.

The Site and Its Name

The elevation was the whole point. A defensible rock above a plain is where an early settlement puts its citadel, and where a later one puts its temples. From the summit the view now takes in the modern city in every direction, with the Saronic Gulf showing to the southwest beyond Piraeus.

The word itself comes from the Greek akron, highest point, and polis, city. There are acropoleis all over Greece; this is the one that gets the definite article. In antiquity the rock was also called Cecropia, after Cecrops, the serpent-tailed figure remembered as Athens' first king. Its familiar shape dates from the building programme Pericles pushed through in the 5th century BCE, which produced the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike.

History

The Myths Attached to the Rock

The Cecrops story is the most durable of them. Athenians named the citadel after him and traced their descent to a king who was half snake, half man — a claim about being native to the soil rather than incomers. The contest between Athena and Poseidon for the patronage of the city was also set on this summit: Poseidon struck salt water from the rock, Athena produced an olive tree, and Athena won. Both spots were still being shown to visitors centuries later, inside the Erechtheion.

Pericles and the 5th Century BCE

Under Pericles the Acropolis was rebuilt after the Persians destroyed it in 480 BCE. Three buildings define what visitors see:

• The Parthenon: the temple of Athena, the largest structure on the rock, and the one that carried the city's wealth and self-image.
• The Propylaea: the monumental gateway, a colonnaded entrance with marble halls to either side.
• The Erechtheion: a temple shared between Athena and Poseidon, best known for the Caryatid porch, where six draped female figures stand in place of columns.

The Monuments

Classical

The Propylaea is still the way in. Beside it, on a bastion to the right as you climb, stands the small Temple of Athena Nike. On the summit, the base of the giant bronze Athena Promachos survives; the statue itself is long gone. The Sanctuary of Artemis Brauronia, trapezoidal in plan, occupies the southwest corner of the plateau — Artemis in this aspect was the protector of women through pregnancy and childbirth. The Erechtheion, the Pandroseion and the foundations of the older Temple of Athena complete the group.

Hellenistic and Roman

The later building went onto the slopes rather than the summit. On the south side are the Theatre of Dionysus with the sanctuary of Dionysus Eleuthereus beside it, and the Sanctuary of Asclepius further along. The Chalkotheke, the storehouse for bronze offerings, survives as foundations on the plateau itself.

The largest of the later structures is the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, built in 161 CE. It is a roofed stone theatre rather than an amphitheatre, seats around 5,000, and is still in use for concerts and performances through the summer. Running east from it is the Stoa of Eumenes, a Hellenistic colonnade that gave theatre audiences somewhere to shelter.

The Acropolis Today

World Heritage Status

UNESCO inscribed the Acropolis as a World Heritage Site in 1987. The designation covers the monuments themselves and acknowledges how much of the Western architectural vocabulary was derived from them.

What the Site Stands For

The institutions that grew up below the rock — assembly democracy, the law courts, tragedy, philosophy conducted in public — are the reason the Acropolis is treated as more than a set of ruins. The buildings are contemporary with those institutions and were paid for out of the same imperial revenues, which is part of the story as well.

What to Expect

The climb is short but the going is uneven, and the marble on the older paths has been polished slick by footfall. Information panels and guides cover each structure, and the Acropolis Museum at the foot of the south slope holds the sculpture removed from the buildings, displayed in the order it was carved.

Practical Notes

• Go early in the morning or in the last hours before closing. The rock has no shade and the midday sun in summer is punishing.
• Wear shoes with grip. The ancient pathways are worn smooth in places.
• Carry water. There are taps near the entrance and very few above it.
• Do not touch or climb on the structures. The site is under continuous restoration and much of the stone is fragile.
• A guide is worth the money on a first visit; the ruins do not explain themselves.

Twenty-five centuries of rebuilding, looting, bombardment and repair have left the Acropolis legible but incomplete, which is arguably the honest way to read it. The rock was occupied in the first place because it watched the sea, and that water is still a large part of why people come to Athens: chartering a gulet from Athens puts Aegina, Poros and Hydra within a day of the skyline you have just been standing on.