Parthenon
Ancient Doric temple to Athena, its colonnade scarred by a seventeenth-century gunpowder blast.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Parthenon in Athens turns on an evening in September 1687, when a Turkish deserter tips off the besieging Venetian army that the Ottomans have stored their gunpowder inside the ancient temple on the hill. Commanders Francesco Morosini and Otto Wilhelm Konigsmarck are laying siege to the Acropolis, and a young lieutenant from Luneburg volunteers to aim the mortar himself. The guide also traces the temple's three earlier lives, as a temple to Athena, a Christian church and a mosque.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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