Athens which is a very important city with perspective to ancient roman culture and civilization has many a good number of historical monuments and places in the city those have unique reputation among architectural legends of present times. Below are briefed some important landmarks from ancient city of Athens.
• Academy: It is a Plato’s school of philosophy, founded approximately about 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece.The site of Akademia was sacred to Athena and other immortals. Other important persons who learnt at Akademia are Aristotle, Heraclides Ponticus, Eudoxus of Cnidus, Philip of Opus, Crantor, and Antiochus of Ascalon.
• Acropolis: The Acropolis of Athens or Citadel of Athens is a renowned acropolis in the world. Though there are many other acropoleis in Greece yet Acropolis of Athens is far superior and better than others. The Acropolis is considered as the pre eminent monument on the European Cultural Heritage list of monuments on 26 March 2007. It is a flat-topped rock that rises 150 m (490 ft) above sea level in the city of Athens, with a surface area of about 3 hectares.
Parthenon and the Acropolis
• Acropolis Museum: The Acropolis Museum is an archaeological museum based upon the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was constructed in a manner that all the artifacts found on the rock can be accommodated properly over there. The museum was founded in 2003 and open to public on June 21, 2009. Presently about 4,000 objects are exhibited over an area of 14,000 square metres in the museum.
• Arch of Hadrian: The Arch of Hadrian is a monumental gateway to the (arrival) of the Roman Emperor Hadrian and to honor him for his many benefactions to the city, on the occasion of the dedication of the nearby temple complex in 131 or 132 AD
• Areopagus: It is the rock north-west of the Acropolis that in the ancient period was used as high court of Appeal for criminal and civil cases in Athens. Ares was supposed to have been tried here by the gods for the murder of Poseidon’s son Alirrothios showing it to be an example of aetiological myth.
• Monument of Lysicrates: The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates near the Acropolis of Athens was developed by the choregos Lysicrates, to celebrate the award of first prize in 335BC that he sponsored in the theatre of Dionysus.
• Hellenic Parliament: The Hellenic Parliament is the Parliament of Greece, located in the Parliament House. It is a unicameral legislature of 300 members as selected for four year term. Many Important Greek statesmen stated the seat of Speakers of the Hellenic Parliament.
• Odeon of Herodes Atticus: The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre structure positioned on the south slope of the Acropolis of Athens. It was constructed in 161 AD by Herodes Atticus in remembrance of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. With sitting capacity of around 5,000 people it is a three stone steep sloped amphitheatre.
• Olympic Sports Complex: The Olympic Athletic Center of Athens “Spiros Louis” or OACA (Greek: OAKA), is a sport facilities complex situated at Marousi, northeast Athens, Greece. This entire sport facility is consisted of five major venues as well as other supplementary sport facilities. It hosted the Mediterranean Games in 1991, the World Championship in Athletics in 1997 as well as other important athletic and cultural events. OACA was the main venue for the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.
Athens Olympic Complex
• Temple of Hephaestus: The Temple of Hephaestus and Athena Ergane is the one of the best preserved ancient Greek temple. It is a Doric order peripteral temple situated on the north-west side of the Agora of Athens, on top of the Agoraios Kolonos hill. From the 7th century until 1834, it worked as the Greek Orthodox church of St. George Akamates.
• Temple of Olympian Zeus: The Temple of Olympian Zeus too referred to as the Olympieion, is a colossal ruined temple in the centre of the Greek capital Athens and was dedicated to Zeus, king of the Olympian gods. The construction of the Temple started in the 6th century BC during the rule of Athenian tyrants and was completed in 2nd century AD nearly 638 years after.
• Theatre of Dionysus: It was a major open air theater in Athens where plays in honor of god Dionysus used to be performed there on festivals. The plays in festivals earlier used to occur at flat circular area in the Agora of Athens, however, later on transformed to the sloping southern side of Acropolis in 500 BC.
• Tower of the Winds: Also known as horologion it is an octagonal Pentelic marble clock tower on the Roman agora in Athens. This structure is consisted of sundial, a water clock and a wind vane. It was constructed by Andronicus of Cyrrhus around 50 BC
Other important landmarks and places of importance in Athens are Panathinaiko Stadium, Pedion tou Areos, Philopappos Hill / Monument, Plaka, Pnyx, Presidential Palace, Stoa of Attalos, Mount Lycabettus, Monastiraki, Kapodistrian University of Athens, National Archaeological Museum, National Gardens, National Library of Greece, National Theatre and Ancient Agora.
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athens 2004
city of athens, present times
