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The Parthenon in Athens  
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Tags: Parthenon, architecture, archaeology, ancient, buildings, structures, famous, Greek, Rome

If you were to ask the average person walking down the street to name five ancient buildings or monuments, you can almost guarantee these three buildings would make the list: the Parthenon in Athens, the Pantheon in Rome, and the Egyptian pyramids. Choosing the most important ancient monument is not as easy.

	The Parthenon in Athens is likely the most important structure in history. It is also likely to be considered the most famous of all the classical works of architecture.
	It was built somewhere around 440 B.C.
	It is important because it stands as a monument for classical architecture.
	It is also important because of its design and impact on the worlds of art and architecture. It was extremely large in size for its time.
	The Athenians were proud people, who used their art and architecture to "show off" how intellectual and creative their culture had become.
	The architects, Iktinos and Kallikrates, did this wonderfully. It was designed as an Doric temple (a Temple to Athena). The marble building had 18 columns on the long side and 8 columns down the front. In order to enter the temple, you had to walk around it.
	Sitting atop the Akropolis, the religious and culture center of Athens, the Parthenon was a great monument to the state of Athens. It was also an important religious center in its latter days. During the Byzantine period it was turned into a church and then later into a mosque.
	It remained standing until 1687 when artillery destroyed much of it. Reconstruction began in 1895 and renovations continue today.
	It is more important than the Pantheon for a few reasons. Firstly, because it was built almost 500 years earlier (around 126 A.D.). Therefore the Parthenon doesn’t hold the historical significance.
	It also lacks in architectural significance. Like the Parthenon, the Pantheon is a large temple dedicated the gods. The Pantheon was turned into (and is still) a church.
	Though the Egyptian pyramids are among the largest buildings ever constructed, and were built thousands of years before the classical pieces of architecture, the Parthenon in Athens is more important from an archaeological standpoint. The Egyptian pyramids are still quite a mystery today. And one can learn a lot more from classical antiquity and the archaeology that surrounds the Parthenon than they can from the ancient Egyptians.
	All three of these buildings are archaeologically significant in some ways. However, the Parthenon in Athens is the most significant of the three.

Lister: Pratt

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