The Parthenon

The Parthenon, perhaps the most famous ancient site in Greece, sits atop the Acropolis and is gorgeous lit up at night. This is how we saw it the first night, and you can see it from a distance all around the Plaka district in Greece. The Parthenon was a temple built to honor Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom.

The next morning, we made the climb up the Acropolis (meaning "high city") to see the Parthenon for ourselves. Walking up so high gave us a great view of the city! You'll see how huge it is! Oh, and that little black speck you'll see in a few of the pictures, that's a piece of dust that got caught in the camera lens. You should have seen Justin trying to do whatever he could to get it out. We even started taking pictures upside down to try and hide the black speck. Fortunately we found a camera store that got it out the next day!

Seeing the Parthenon up close in person was breathtaking! What's so amazing is wondering how in the world they built these massive columns weighing tons each without the modern machines we have today. We all just sat there looking straight up pretty much in awe.

The Greeks were known for their distinctive columns. Here's an example of Ionic column (which basically just means it has swirls). The Parthenon was built mainly out of Doric Columns which are more simple and straight lined. And there are still a few remnants of the statues found at the top of the Parthenon. Many of these were stolen by British invaders years ago.

Baby Tristan liked seeing the Parthenon too!