Part 14 – Athens – The Acropolis and the Parthenon

4/20/2017.   Mostly cloudy and windy.  59F/70F.

Security in the Cairo airport, where we caught our flight to Athens, was extremely tight. There were three security checkpoints between the terminal front entrance and the gate, including a full TSA-style x-ray check just before boarding the EgyptAir 737. As we settled into our seats on the plane, video screens came down from the overhead, and there was what looked like a series of prayers in Arabic, in slow poetic language with a picture of a mosque. There were lots of Allah’s in there but that was all I could pick up from the message. The passengers on the plane were a mix of middle eastern-looking folks and a few Europeans, but no apparent Americans. I saw no sign of anyone stopping what they were doing to engage in prayer.

At the Athens airport there was a very orderly taxi queue with mostly Mercedes taxis that would take you into Athens for a standard fixed fare of 38 euros — no predatory chaos like we saw in India and Egypt. It was a scenic drive into town taking a freeway that skirted the city on the hills and gave good views out over the city as we went. Down in the city, Athens had a more European look to it than Cairo … mostly white buildings, but on the gritty side with lots of graffiti everywhere.

The taxi driver had trouble finding our hotel, the Athens Center Square, and when he finally did find it, he told us that this was a bad area, and that we would be better off to get another hotel. Well that certainly put us on edge! We decided that we should take a look for ourselves, which we did — the hotel turned out to be quite basic, but completely adequate. It had a very “Rick Steves” feel to it, complete with a lobby with many Americans and Europeans sitting around studying guidebooks and discussing plans. At a parking structure across the street, there were what looked like some drug deals going on but pretty soon some police came and ran them off, and that was the end of that. We went out to dinner that night at a neighborhood restaurant called Ta Karamanlidika about 2 blocks away, which turned out to be thoroughly delightful. We couldn’t understand anything on the menu but the waitress made some suggestions that we followed, which  all turned out to be delicious. After the somewhat questionable start at our Athens hotel, we never had a problem, and found the taxi driver’s advice to be overblown. In fact the hotel location proved to be excellent – within walking distance of the Acropolis.

The next day we took a grand walk around the old city of Athens: Hadrian’s Library, the Ancient Agora, and finally we climbed through a maze of back alleys and tiny streets up the hill past old whitewashed houses to the base of the cliffs on the north side of the Acropolis, and worked our way around to the entrance on the west side.

Photo 4384, walking through the old Athens bazaar

Photo 1154, climbing the Acropolis via the maze of tiny back streets and alleys

Up and up we went finally reaching the big formal portal entrance to the top of the Acropolis (the “Propylaea”) with its marble columns and stairs.

Photo 1160, the Propylaea portal steps to the top of the Acropolis, dating to 437 BC.

Around a corner up a few more stairs and there it was: the magnificent iconic Parthenon, dating back to the time of Pericles in 447 BC. Never mind that one end of it was all covered with scaffold for restorations … this was the real deal … a primary symbol of Western Civilization, the birthplace of democracy, where Socrates, Plato and Aristotle walked and talked … right there in front of our eyes! It was enough to send shivers up my spine giving the feeling that we were at a source of Western civilization.

Photo 1167, and then the Parthenon was before us

The Parthenon, was built as a temple to the goddess Athena, the goddess of war, wisdom, and the arts, and who was the patroness of Athens. Construction took place from 447-432 BC.  This was during the peak of the Golden Age of Athens — an extraordinary era during the rule of Pericles, the brilliant general, statesman, patron of the arts who ruled from 461-429 BC.  It was a relatively brief time of peace and prosperity amid a tumultuous age between the Persian Wars (invasions and counter-invasions between the Greek city-states and Persia) and the Peloponnesian War — the highly destructive war between Athens and its rival Sparta that was the authoritarian counterpoint to Athens’ democracy.  During the Golden Age, there was an explosion of advances in areas that we still hold dear today: direct democracy, philosophy (Socrates, and later, Plato and Aristotle), architecture (perfection of Greek style emphasizing elegance, balance & beauty), mathematics and science (geometry, medicine), Greek drama (Sophocles, Aristophanes), history (Herodotus) – it was an unbelievable outpouring.  (See Note 1.)

Athens, a city of some 3.8 million, actually looks better from the Acropolis than when you are down in it. From on high it is a city of whitewashed buildings with red tile roofs which stretches out to the surrounding hills then neatly stops at the base of the mountains in the distance.  Down in the streets of the city below it has a more gritty feel to it, with seemingly every available wall covered with spray-painted graffiti, which is a bit off-putting.

Photo 4458, an abundance of graffiti

Even on a cloudy day, the views of the city from the Acropolis are spectacular.  There are several hills covered with trees, and lots of temples and sights that we could see from the Acropolis that called out for us to go explore them: temples and ancient arches, and lots of other ruins which we did not know about … it would be so much fun to go back do such exploring after having done more reading about the history .

Photo 1214, Hadrian’s arch (below the temple ruin), and the hills beyond Athens

We had the same feeling about things that were well-identified and which we did visit, like Hadrian’s Library and Hadrian’s Arch … like: what was Hadrian doing in Athens to have all these sites named after him?  And what were the grand historical forces at work in Hadrian’s time?  All this makes Athens a prime target for another more extended visit some time in the future.  Add a visit to the Greek islands, and the appeal becomes almost irresistible!

This situation came up many times on this trip: our lack of historical background about what we were seeing was a source of mild frustration. But on the whole, that didn’t seem to keep us from having a great time enjoying the iconic sights in Greece and elsewhere!  And we have an excuse to return for a better look in the future!

 

Note 1: Credit to the website http://www.historydiscussion.net/world-history/age-of-pericles-rise-of-city-states-in-ancient-greece/1921 for an excellent discussion of the Age of Pericles.