Propylaea - entrance to ancient Greece

Propylaea. View from

The main place in Athens is of course the Acropolis.

Acropolis - this word is literally translated as "upper city". In ancient Greek settlements, the fortified part of the city was called so. Usually she was on a hill. Ordinary people settled around the acropolis and the so-called “lower city” formed.

During the time of danger, the acropolis was a refuge for residents of the lower city.

This is very similar to the Russian Kremlin or Detinets. These structures are exactly the same as the acropolis in functionality.

Today we are going to visit the most famous acropolis in the world - Athens.

In order not to walk through the migrant zone, we went to the Acropolis by metro.

In the metro itself, we have already encountered ancient artifacts. When the metro was built in Athens, many objects of ancient art were found, and some of them were installed in the passages and at the metro stations. Greeks love and take pride in their history.

Leaving the subway, we were almost at the foot of the Acropolis. Life was boiling around. People went in for sports - there were a lot of running people.

The morning was very warm and pleasant. The sun gently warmed the earth. Since the nights are still quite cold, small swirls occur due to temperature changes. One of them was very surprised by a group of tourists.

The Acropolis of Athens is located on a large rocky hill. The height of the hill is 156 meters. It rises strongly over the city.

The road to this hill begins at the very foot. Having passed through the cash register, we went along a zigzag road up to the Propylaea. While we climbed up the road, around it was possible to observe a huge amount of remnants of columns, orders, fragments of ancient architecture.

All this was in the green of the grass and bright red poppies.

Propylaea is the main entrance, the main gate to the Acropolis. This building is one of the most outstanding sights of ancient architecture. White and gray marble was chosen as the material by architect Mnesikl. All these events took place in 437-432 BC, i.e. almost 2500 years ago.

Propylaea open towards the city with a colonnade of six marble columns of a Doric order. These columns came from wooden pillars, which were once dug into the ground with a thick part downwards. Therefore, the stone columns of the Propylaea sharply taper up. The transverse marble beam - architrave - also came from wooden beams, and as a memory of the ends of the longitudinal beams remained, Three marble planks - triglyphs that are repeated at equal distance above the architrave.

Propylaea were built after the main temple of the Acropolis - the Parthenon. At the same time, the architect took into account how the visitor’s sensations will be formed and correlated the proportions of the structure with the proportions of the Parthenon in order to achieve harmony.