Propylaea
Grand marble gateway to a sacred hilltop, left permanently unfinished by war and later wrecked by an explosion.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Propylaea in Athens opens on a summer storm in 1640, when lightning found barrels of Ottoman gunpowder stored inside this ancient gateway and tore open the roof above you. It reaches back to 437 BC, when Pericles put the architect Mnesikles in charge of a grand marble entrance to the Acropolis, and follows the project's abrupt halt five years in when the Peloponnesian War drained the money and the will to finish it. Look closely at the wings beside you, where some blocks were never even smoothed, tool marks frozen mid-cut.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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