The Parthenon - Athens, Greece
Posted by: Metro2
N 37° 58.287 E 023° 43.569
34S E 739463 N 4206153
The Parthenon...an icon of Athens and Greece. Construction was completed in 438 BC.
Waymark Code: WMH33A
Location: Greece
Date Posted: 05/13/2013
Views: 36
This blog (
visit link) briefly informs us about the stamp:
"Here is a Greek postage stamp (1995) featuring Melina Mercouri in front of the Parthenon in Athens, from which Lord Elgin removed his marbles in the nineteenth century.
Melina was an actress, who became a politicician, the Greek Minister of Culture and a campaigner for the reurn of the Elgin Marbles to Greece."
and Wikiepedia (
visit link) informs us:
"The Parthenon ...is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the maiden goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron deity. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the culmination of the development of the Doric order. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art. The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy, western civilization and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. The Greek Ministry of Culture is currently carrying out a program of selective restoration and reconstruction to ensure the stability of the partially ruined structure.
The Parthenon itself replaced an older temple of Athena, which historians call the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon, that was destroyed in the Persian invasion of 480 BC. The temple is archaeoastronomically aligned to the Hyades.[5] Like most Greek temples, the Parthenon was used as a treasury. For a time, it also served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. In the 5th century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary."