Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
• Enter through the glass doors labeled
Parthenon Galleries.
(The rooms branching off the
entryway usually have helpful exhibits that reconstruct the Parthenon and its once-color-
ful sculptures.)
Parthenon Galleries
(See “British Museum—Parthenon Galleries” map,
here
.)
If you were to leave the British Museum, take the Tube to Heathrow, and fly to Athens,
there, in the center of the old city, on top of the high, flat hill known as the Acropolis,
you'd find the Parthenon—the temple dedicated to Athena, goddess of wisdom and the
patroness of Athens. It was the crowning glory of an enormous urban-renewal plan during
Greece's Golden Age. After Athens was ruined in a war with Persia, the city—under the
bold leadership of Pericles—constructed the greatest building of its day (447-432
B.C.
).
The Parthenon was a model of balance, simplicity, and harmonious elegance, the symbol
of the Golden Age. Phidias, the greatest Greek sculptor, decorated the exterior with statues
and relief panels.
While the building itself remains in Athens, many of the Parthenon's best sculptures
are right here in the British Museum—the so-called Elgin Marbles, named for the shrewd
