The Parthenon ✨
The most studied and imitated building in history. See the temple that set the standard for Western architecture – and still influences design 2,500 years later.
What is the Parthenon?
The Parthenon is an ancient Greek temple on the Acropolis of Athens, dedicated to Athena Parthenos—the virgin goddess who protected the city. Completed in 432 BCE, it’s considered the finest example of classical Doric architecture and has served as a model for buildings worldwide ever since.
The temple once housed one of antiquity’s greatest treasures: a 12-meter statue of Athena made of gold and ivory, created by the sculptor Phidias. Visitors traveled across the Mediterranean to see it. The statue is long gone, but the temple remains—damaged by war and time, but still standing after two and a half thousand years.
Constructed in the 5th century BC as a Doric temple dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, the Parthenon was built as part of a grand building project initiated by the Athenian statesman Pericles during the height of Athenian power. The entire building was designed with harmonious proportions, using white Pentelic marble to showcase the advanced craftsmanship of ancient Greece.
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Acropolis Parthenon Tickets with Optional Audio Guide
Skip the ticket lines and step into ancient history at your own pace. Explore the iconic Parthenon, Temple of Athena Nike, and Theatre of Dionysus with a multilingual audio guide that reveals the myths, legends, and stories behind Athens’ most treasured monuments.
Includes:
- Timed entry to the Acropolis
- Audio guide in English, French, German, Spanish & Italian
- Offline access with online map
Best price:
36 €
Acropolis Skip-the-Line Ticket with Audio Guide
Travel back in time with hassle-free e-tickets and timed entry to the Acropolis. Explore at your own pace with a self-guided audio tour that brings ancient Athens to life through captivating myths, historical insights, and stories of the Golden Age.
Includes:
- Acropolis e-ticket with time slot
- Audio guide in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian & Chinese
- Offline content for your smartphone
Best price:
40 €
The story of the Parthenon temple
Built after the Persian Wars
The Parthenon rose from destruction. In 480 BCE, Persian invaders sacked Athens and burned the temples on the Acropolis. For thirty years, the ruins were left standing. The ‘older Parthenon’, sometimes called Parthenon II, was among the structures destroyed by the Persians, and the new temple was built to replace it.
Then Pericles, the leading Athenian statesman, proposed rebuilding on a grander scale. Construction began in 447 BCE, funded partly by tribute from the Delian League – the alliance Athens led against Persia. Construction was completed in 438 BCE, with decorative work continuing until 432 BCE.
The Parthenon also served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. The building was meant to demonstrate that Athens had not only survived but thrived, and it was built in the 5th century BC in thanksgiving for the Greek victory over the Persian invaders during the Greco-Persian Wars.
The builders
Pericles assembled the best talent available. Architects Iktinos and Kallikrates designed the structure. Phidias, the most famous sculptor of the age, also known as sculptor Pheidias, oversaw all artistic elements and was responsible for the overall sculptural decoration and supervision of the artistic program. Thousands of workers spent fifteen years on the project.
The scale was enormous: the entire building was constructed using white Pentelic marble, showcasing the advanced skills of ancient Greek craftsmen. Roughly 22,000 tons of marble were quarried from Mount Pentelicus, sixteen kilometers away. Each block was transported by ox-cart, then lifted into position with cranes and pulleys. No mortar was used – just iron clamps and precise cutting.
Later history
The Parthenon served as a temple to Athena for nearly a thousand years. In the late 6th century AD, it was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Later, during the period of the Ottoman Empire, the Parthenon was transformed into a mosque under Turkish rule.
The building’s worst damage came in 1687. Venetian forces besieging Athens fired on the Acropolis. The Ottomans had stored gunpowder inside the Parthenon, and a direct hit ignited it. The explosion destroyed the roof, interior walls, and many columns. What remains today is roughly half the original structure.
Architectural features of the Parthenon
Optical Refinements
Nothing about the Parthenon is actually straight—and that’s intentional. Ancient Greek architects understood that perfectly straight lines can appear to sag to the human eye, and that evenly spaced columns seem to bunch at corners. The Parthenon’s builders compensated with subtle adjustments. The temple’s platform curves upward toward the center by about 6 centimeters.
Each of the 46 outer columns swells slightly in the middle (a technique called entasis) to prevent them from looking concave. Corner columns are slightly thicker and lean inward to account for the bright sky behind them. These refinements are nearly invisible on their own.
The harmonious proportions of the entire building are achieved through the precise arrangement of the Parthenon's columns, with eight columns on the short sides and seventeen columns on the long sides, creating a balanced and aesthetically pleasing structure. Together, they create the impression of perfect proportions—the building looks mathematically precise because the architects corrected for how our eyes actually see.
Doric and Ionic Elements
The Parthenon is a Doric temple—Greek architecture’s oldest style. The columns have no bases and rise directly from the platform. The capitals are simple cushion shapes. But the building also includes Ionic elements. The continuous Ionic frieze running around the inner chamber is a key part of the Parthenon's sculptural decoration and belongs to the more decorative Ionic tradition. This combination of styles was unusual for its time.
The sculptural decoration of the Parthenon also includes pediments depicting mythological scenes and metopes featuring high-relief carvings of battles.
Proportions
The Parthenon measures about 69.5 meters long and 30.9 meters wide. The ratio 9:4 appears throughout: in the relationship between length and width, column height to diameter, and spacing between columns. Greek architects believed mathematical ratios reflected cosmic order.
Sculptural treasures of the Athens Parthenon
Ninety-two metopes—square sculptural panels—once surrounded the Parthenon’s exterior. The north side metopes depict the sack of Troy, representing the Trojan War. The southern side shows Lapiths fighting Centaurs. The western side features Greeks versus Amazons. The eastern side illustrates gods battling giants.
These metopes depict mythical battles, symbolizing the struggle between order and chaos, and many of the sculptures are now considered fragile sculptures due to their age and exposure.
Each scene represented civilization overcoming chaos—a theme with obvious political implications for Athens. The condition of the metopes varies, and ongoing efforts are dedicated to preserving these fragile sculptures.
The Parthenon frieze, an Ionic frieze, ran 160 meters around the inner chamber, depicting a special procession known as the Panathenaic procession—Athens’ most important religious festival honoring Athena. Horsemen, charioteers, musicians, sacrificial animals, and citizens are shown in detailed representations of the human body in motion, demonstrating the remarkable skill of ancient Greek sculptors. The procession culminates at the main entrance of the temple, where offerings are presented to the gods assembled at the eastern end.
This was unusual: Greek temples typically depicted mythological scenes, not contemporary citizens.
The triangular pediments at each end contained large sculptural groups. On the east façade (east end), the east pediment depicted the birth of Athena among the Olympian gods, showing her springing fully formed from Zeus’s head. The west pediment (west end) showed Athena and Poseidon competing for patronage of Athens—the moment Athena struck the rock and produced the sacred olive tree.
These figures were carved fully in the round from marble blocks, with careful detail even on parts that couldn’t be seen from ground level.
Inside the temple stood its main purpose: Athena Parthenos. This statue—12 meters tall, made of gold and ivory over a wooden frame—depicted the goddess in armor, holding Nike (Victory) in one hand and a shield and spear in the other. The Parthenon also featured a rear chamber, known as the opisthodomos, which was used to store offerings and treasures dedicated to Athena.
Ancient writers describe it in detail. Her robes were hammered gold. Her skin was polished ivory. The gold alone weighed about 1,140 kilograms.
The statue survived into late antiquity before disappearing from historical record. Only Roman copies and written descriptions remain.
The Parthenon today
Restoration work
The Parthenon, located on the Acropolis site in Athens, is recognized as a major archaeological site and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Since 1975, the Greek government has led extensive restoration projects to stabilize and repair the Parthenon, aiming to preserve its remaining sculptures and artifacts. The ongoing work includes removing iron clamps from earlier restorations (which corrode and damage the marble) and replacing them with titanium.
To further protect and display the remaining sculptures and artifacts from the Parthenon, the new Acropolis Museum was built. This modern institution houses many of the sculptures that remain in Greece and provides an in-depth view of the ancient history of the Acropolis site.
The goal is preservation, not reconstruction—stopping deterioration while respecting the building’s history.
The Elgin Marbles
In the early 19th century, British diplomat Lord Elgin removed about half the Parthenon’s original sculptures—including metopes, frieze sections, and pediment figures—and shipped them to London. These original sculptures are now in the British Museum, displayed as the “Parthenon Marbles,” while more than half of the remaining sculptures are housed in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
In 2021, UNESCO called upon the UK government to resolve the issue of the Parthenon Marbles at the intergovernmental level. Four pieces of the Parthenon sculptures have been repatriated to Greece, including three from the Vatican and one from a museum in Sicily.
Britain maintains the removal was legal and that the marbles are accessible to a global audience in London. The Acropolis Museum, opened in 2009, has a gallery designed to display the frieze at its original height—with visible gaps where the London pieces would fit, highlighting the absence of the original sculptures and the importance of the remaining sculptures in Athens.
Frequently asked questions
01 What is the Parthenon?
The Parthenon is an ancient Greek temple on the Acropolis of Athens, dedicated to the goddess Athena Parthenos. Built between 447 and 432 BCE, it’s considered the finest example of Doric architecture. The temple once housed a gold-and-ivory statue of Athena and served as both a religious center and a treasury.
Today, the Parthenon is a protected archaeological site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, attracting millions of tourists every year.
02 Why was the Parthenon built?
03 How old is the Parthenon?
About 2,457 years old. Construction began in 447 BCE and finished in 432 BCE. The temple has survived conversion into a church, a mosque, and a 1687 explosion that destroyed much of the structure.
04 What is the difference between the Parthenon and the Acropolis?
The Parthenon is one building. The Acropolis is the entire hilltop complex containing multiple structures, including the Parthenon, Erechtheion, Temple of Athena Nike, Propylaea, Theatre of Dionysus, and Odeon of Herodes Atticus.
05 Can you go inside the Parthenon?
No. The interior has been closed for preservation and ongoing restoration. Visitors can walk around the exterior. The Acropolis Museum displays original Parthenon sculptures and has a gallery showing the frieze at its original height.
06 What happened to the Parthenon?
The worst damage occurred in 1687 when Venetian forces fired on the Acropolis and ignited gunpowder the Ottomans had stored inside. The explosion destroyed the roof, interior walls, and many columns.
Earlier, the temple had been converted into a church (5th century) and later a mosque. In the early 1800s, Lord Elgin removed about half the surviving sculptures, now in the British Museum.
07 What are the Elgin Marbles?
Sculptures removed from the Parthenon by British diplomat Lord Elgin between 1801 and 1812, now in the British Museum. The collection includes metopes, frieze sections, and pediment figures. Greece has campaigned for their return; Britain maintains the removal was legal.
08 What did the Parthenon originally look like?
The original Parthenon had a complete roof, intact walls, and painted decorations throughout. The exterior featured 92 sculptural metopes, a 160-meter frieze, and large pediment sculptures. Inside stood the Athena Parthenos statue. Traces of red, blue, and gold paint suggest the temple was much more colorful than its current appearance.
09 Why is the Parthenon famous?
It’s considered the best example of classical Greek architecture. Its proportions, optical refinements, and sculptural program established standards that influenced Western architecture for over two thousand years. Government buildings, banks, and monuments worldwide imitate its columns and pediments.
10 How long does it take to visit the Parthenon?
About 90 minutes to 2 hours as part of a full Acropolis visit. The Parthenon itself takes 20–30 minutes to walk around. Guided tours run about 90 minutes to 2 hours. Adding the Acropolis Museum extends your visit to 4–5 hours total.