Architecture In Ancient Greece

The Trip of a Lifetime

After counting down the days for over a year, June 23 finally came and twenty-eight EGHS students (including several recent grads) and five chaperones left the high school parking lot en route to a ten-day trip to Greece.

Our group, composed of Latin and art students, got the chance to see some of the ancient wonders of the world from Athens and throughout the Greek islands that we had studied in Latin class or painted in art class. Also, many of the sites visited, we had studied in English class for numerous years, like Delphi, from Sophocles' "Oedipus the King."

After the seven-hour flight to Madrid, four-hour layover in the humongous Madrid airport, and four-hour flight to Athens, we finally landed eager to start our journey.

The first of many ancient monuments with breathtaking views that we went to was the Parthenon, which was built in 447 BC and is considered one of the main symbols of Ancient Greece. From the top of the large, columned Parthenon we could see the entire city of Athens, with views of all the closely built buildings, the numerous amphitheaters, and temples of the Greek gods and goddesses. The architecture throughout Athens was unlike that of any city in the United States which is why it was so unique for all of us to see. Throughout the first couple of days we were guided through Athens by our wonderful tour guide Roberta, who provided us with background knowledge and facts of all the historical sites.

Besides seeing all of the ancient monuments in Athens, one of the best parts was testing our bargaining skills while shopping in the city. In downtown Athens there are no set prices on the souvenirs for sale so the price is ultimately up to you, the buyer. Our group definitely was successful with haggling the street vendors to the lowest prices, whether it was getting a 20 euro watch for 5 euros or buying three football jerseys for 30 euros when they were originally 20 euros each.

Another fascinating part about Athens was the mixture of ancient and modern, as if the newer parts of the city were trying to connect with the old. For example, one day after going out to lunch, we walked right into the Temple of Zeus without even planning on it.

The modern world did make itself felt while we were in Athens, as many of you already know. We saw many graffiti-covered camp sites filled with tents for all the protesters who were rioting over all the budget cuts during their current recession. We also had to be very cautious and alert while roaming the streets of Athens due to the threat of pickpocketers there.

Greek Architecture | Articles Studio

Architecture in ancient Greece was usually done with wood or mud-bricks, so their ground plans are the only evidence of their existence. Greeks established most of the most enduring themes, attitudes, and forms of western culture. Architecture is one of the Greek legacies that the western civilization has inherited, as Greece established many of the structural elements, decorative motifs, and building types still used in architecture today.

The two main styles of Greek architecture are doric and ionic. The doric style is much more disciplined and austere, whereas the ionic style is more relaxed and decorative. There was a strong emphasis in building temples for the Greek mythological gods and goddesses. But, there were also well known public buildings like the Parthenon.

Building materials used were limestone and some native stones. Highly expensive marble was used mainly for sculptural decoration found in grand buildings of the classical period. The roofs of their buildings were made up of timber beams covered with overlapping terracotta or occasionally marble tiles.

The structure of ancient Greek architecture consists of a basic cube or rectangle, flanked by colonnades, and a long sequence of columns. Building will have a pronao or a portico that open up to a large open court peristyle. Greeks used very little of the principles of the masonary arch, individual blocks bound together by mortar. The front end of the roof has flat triangular shaped structure, the pediment which is usually filled with scultural decoration.

Temples are the best known form of Greek architecture. The altar of the temple was usually found in the sacred fane, an enclosure, in front of the temple. The inner building of the temple, cella, served mainly as the storage room. The other common public builds of the Greek architecture are gymnasiums, the palaestra, and theatres.

In ancient Greece, architects were hardly treated as valuable master craftsmen, unlike today where the architects are closely associated with the work they produce. And moreover, architecture was not seen as an art form, as it is in modern times.

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