Athens II

Day two started a bit slow. Finally managed to get to the Acropolis Museum. The museum is fascinating. It appears to be built over some Roman ruins ie baths. Interesting to see sculptures that are over 3000 years old. The workmanship is still unbelievable since all the statues are carved out of marble. Feeling the hardness of the marble it would take quite a bit of chisel work to rough out the statue, then a bit more loving labour to polish it up. Unfortunately some of the sculptures have been defaced firstly by the Persians, then anyone else who decided to try and mark in history. When the Christians came through they made some serious conversions and adaptations. What once were pagan gods were now Christian saints, particularly anywhere the Virgin Mary is concerned. After the Christians came the Muslims, who see statues of people (particularly naked ones) as inappropriate and objects of worship . Finally after the Muslims came the British, who took what was left of the sculptures to help preserve them better in the British Museum. After all the invaders that came through and the British rock/art collectors it is surprising that there is anything to show in Athens.

After we visited the Acropolis we went across to Mars Hill where Apostle Paul talked to the Athenians in Acts 17 about the "Unknow God," Interesting that the Athenians had a law that there was to be no introduction of any new gods to the set of 11 plus the one unknow god that Apostle Paul spoke about. Interestingly at the end of his stay before he moved on to Corinth, a man by the name of Dionysium and a woman names Damaris and others who believed Paul and began worship the unknow God who is now known as Jesus Christ.  Mitchell and David M two theology students who read Act 17 on Mars Hill.

After the Akropolis and Mars Hill visit

Pots in the Acropolis Museum

Stone Reliefs of the Acropolis

Statue of a nude male, had to be put up high so people didn't though his smooth private parts.

More relief sculptures

Roman Baths near or under Acropolis Museum

Railway station - definitely not as good as Dubai and Singapore. Very noisy in the tunnels.

Finally joined the tour at the Athens Airport...

An out door theatre near the foot of the Acropolis. Last night they had a great concert in  the  theatre.

Mars Hill view from Acropolis

A temple near the ckropolis

Finally the Acropolis

Another open air theatre at the bottom of Acropolis

Foot of Mars Hill

Some of the group on Mars Hill with Dr Wayne French in backround

Changing of the guard @ Parliament House at 11.00pm

Small statue of Athena - a goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill. Little wonder  that the Athenians worshiped Athena...

we did a brief tour of Athens and the key historical sites. The night ended at 11.00 pm after a short walk to see the changing of the guard at Greek Parliament House.