For over 150 years the marbles of Greece have been placed in the British museum, they are recognized as the Elgin Marbles. The Elgin Marbles continue to be the main point of an ongoing debate that will basically determine the historical influence of an important culture. Some of the sculptures that were removed were the marble figures, metopes (sculptures in high relief) and friezes. To this day the Greek government has correctly requested the return of the Elgin Marbles a few times while the British government has frequently refuse any action. Greece is in pursuance of an agenda to pressure the British Parliament to pass a law to authorize the British Museum to return the collection to its original site at the Acropolis. All of this is being done through the direct lobbying efforts that have the support of UNESCO and the European Union. The Greek government is also acknowledging international channels to resolve the problem, especially the European Court of Justice.…
The Colosseum has an outer circumference of 1,788 feet. It is 187 feet high, 615 feet long, and 510 feet wide.…
The controversy of whether the Elgin or Parthenon Marbles should be kept in Britain, or returned to Greece, has been a frenzied dispute since the early 1800’s. Lord Elgin originally took possession of the Marbles to either salvage them from being further destroyed, or he bought them and re-sold them to the British Museum. Whether Lord Elgin, ambassador to the then ruling Ottoman empire, had the authority to handle the Marbles presents great confusion, “[a]s to whether Elgin had legal authority to remove the marbles, the Ottomans being the ruling power, as the British maintain… “The problem is not legal,” he [Mr. Pandermalis] decided. “It’s ethical and cultural” (Kimmelman).The British can return the Marbles to Greece, where they originally belonged, or Greece can be satisfied with the casts of the Marbles. Despite the casts of the real Marbles in the Acropolis Museum in Greece, there are still requests by the Greek government to return the Marbles from Britain. Lord Elgin’s decision to salvage the Marbles finds a way to appear as vandalism in the eyes of others. Britain has a strong argument as to why they should remain the owners of the Marbles, but because of Greece’s ownership of the Marbles before Britain, and their capability of protecting the Marbles in the new Acropolis Museum, it is perfectly understandable as to why Greece believes the Marbles should be returned.…
The “Elgin Marbles” are Ancient Greek art from The Parthenon in Greece, named this after Lord Elgin. The ancient art was acquired by Britain, initially through Lord Elgin’s removal from the Parthenon during his time as an Ottoman ambassador in Athens, Greece. He somehow convinced the Ottoman emperor to allow him to take the ancient art, beginning in 1805. The British government purchased the ancient artifacts from Lord Elgin and placed them in the British Museum, where they have remained since 1816. Currently, Greece’s government argues that the artifacts should be returned. Britain states that it is a bad idea due to the irreversible damage that…
The Parthenon building in Athens was started in 447 BC and completed in 432. It represents a tangible and the visible power of the Athenian Empire. Having also the influence from the Athenian politician, Perikles. The Pantheon Building is in Rome, Italy and was constructed in 126 AD. The name Pantheon comes from the Greek language meaning ''every god''. It’s in a circular shape rather than the rectangular shape of the Parthenon Building in Athens. It is currently being used a Church dedicated to St. Mary and has been since the 7th century. For these buildings, I have found that the functionality or use of them has been quite different from each other. The Parthenon was used as both a treasury in the smaller rooms and as cult statues rooms in the larger areas.…
“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime...”…
Augustus, the first emperor of Rome once stated, “I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble.” Rome may have continued to be like any other city throughout the Roman Empire without the influence of Augustus, but now it is prominently known as a goldmine for historical research. One of the most distinguished architectures of this great empire is the Colosseum, which today is recognized as being one of the world’s largest amphitheaters ever constructed. The region of origin of this massive stone edifice rested in Ancient Rome and currently resides in the Province of Rome in Italy. Due to its commission in A.D. 70-72 by Emperor Vespasian of the Flavian dynasty and its formal opening in A.D. 80 by Vespian’s son, Titus, it is also…
Two ancient civilizations were separated by almost four-thousand miles and the Mediterranean Sea, yet still seemed to produce two incredibly similar and magnificent works of art. If that is not a worthy feat in itself, the two works of art were also created almost two-thousand years apart from each other before the two civilizations had any sort of major contact with one another. The similarities of the works, despite the time and distance, suggests that Ancient Egypt had more of an impact on Ancient Greece than was previously understood. By looking at these two works of art, a deeper understanding of the relations between the civilizations will be gained and explored in more detail.…
Watching the documentary, Secrets of the Parthenon, allows an intimate glimpse into the creation and restoration of one of classical Greece’s most iconic symbols, the Parthenon. Back in 447BC, Percicles gathered support for the construction of the Parthenon, a temple decided to the goddess Athena, who was considered extremely important in Athens. During the nine years of construction, new precision construction techniques were used and applied to the marble construction, with the end result being a structure so large and so beautiful to the eye, unlike any other ever constructed before.…
Unlike earlier amphitheatres that were semi-circular and built into hillsides, the Flavian amphitheatre is an ellipsoid and still stands free. The name Colosseum, as known conventionally, came from the massive bronze statue of Nero (Colossus Neronis) that stood next to it in the Region IV Templum Pacis, East of the Roman Forum.The Amphitheatre at Pompeii and the Circus Maximus served as Rome’s entertainment venues prior to the construction of the Colosseum.…
The Blue Marble is a photograph of Earth that was taken December 7th, 1972 when the Apollo 17 crew were travelling toward the moon. The title of the beautiful photograph could symbolize many things but what I understood from it is that we see ourselves living on a small planet with many different aspects but in the end were always together if we put the effort in staying together. When observing The Blue Marble, I have realized many things such as the photograph gives me a better understanding of how we only see the small picture, were all isolated by water and can't seem to get out of our shell and change the big picture for a better one and the photograph could be a symbol of a new beginning to many discoveries in our lives.…
The Hagias Sophia designers creatively joint the longitudinal construction of a Roman cathedral and the dominant strategy of a drum-supported dome, in order to endure the high greatness earthquakes of the Marmara Area, On the other hand, in the time of May 558, slight more than 20 years after the Church’s devotion, following the earthquakes of August 553 and December 557, portions of the center dome and its second supporting construction system bent. The Hagias Sophia was frequently broken by earthquakes and was right away fixed. Isidore of Miletus’ nephew, Isidore the Younger, familiarized the new dome project that can be observed in the Hagia Sophia in contemporary day Istanbul, Turkey. After a countless earthquake in 989 tumbledown the…
The Stonehenge original purpose may never be truly known but even so, archaeologists have thought up of theories to why this monument was erected. The most influential theories explain that the monument may have been to keep track of the movement of the sun, as a cemetery for the elite, a healing place, or a team building exercise.…
When work began on the Parthenon in 447 BC, the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. When it was finished in 432 BC, it symbolized Athenian’s imperial power and it symbolizes the power and influence of the Athenian politician, Perikles, who championed its construction. The Parthenon is a Doric peripteral temple, which means that it consists of a rectangular floor plan with a series of low steps on every side, and a colonnade of Doric columns extending around the periphery of the entire structure. Each entrance has an additional six columns in front of it. The larger of the two interior rooms, the Naos, housed the cult statue. The smaller room, the Opisthodomos, was used as a treasury. It was built to replace two earlier temples of Athena on the Acropolis. The architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates and also the sculptor Pheidias, who made the massive chryselephantine cult statue of the goddess. The metopes of the Parthenon all represented various instances of the struggle between the forces of order and justice, on the one hand, and criminal chaos on the other. On the west side, the mythical battle against the Amazons; on the south, the battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs; on the east, the battle between the gods and the giants; on the north, the Greeks versus the Trojans. The Pedimental Sculptures were larger than those of the metopes, occupied the triangular space above the triglyphs and metopes. Those at the west end of the temple depicted the contest between Poseidon and Athena for the right to be the patron deity of Athens (Athena's gift of the olive tree was preferred over Poseidon's spring). The eastern pedimental group showed the birth of Athena from Zeus' head. The eastern pedimental sculpture suffered badly when the Parthenon was hit by a Venetian shell in 1687 and the powder magazine inside exploded. The Parthenon frieze runs around the upper edge of the temple wall. Unlike the metopes, the frieze has a single…
The Arch provides one of the few contemporary depictions of Temple period artifacts.[6][7] The seven-branched menorah and trumpets are clearly depicted. It became a symbol of the Jewish diaspora. In a later era, Pope Paul IV made it the place of a yearly oath of submission. Jews refuse to walk under it.[citation needed] The menorah depicted on the Arch served as the model for the menorah used on the emblem of the state of Israel.[citation needed]However, when the existence of modern State of Israel was formally declared, the entire Roman Jewish community spontaneously gathered by the arch and in joyful celebration, walked backwards under the arch to symbolize beginning of the long-awaited redemption from the Roman Exile.[8]…