Why Did Greek Cities Build The Parthenon

The Parthenon was a temple that was built on top of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Greece was destroyed by the Persians during the Persian war in 480 B.C.E. An effort to rebuilt Athens was started and the whole population of the city was put to the task. At first, the city’s walls were restored and then the focus was turned to the marketplace (agora). The marketplace was also finished but the temples remained untouched. The Athenians left the foundations of the temples as they were because they wanted the citizens to have a constant reminder of the violence that was caused by the Persians. Later on, the Athenian leader and general-in-chief, Perikles took upon the task of rebuilding the temples on the Acropolis. The Parthenon was the
This helped save the workers save a lot of time. However, the Parthenon was meant to be bigger than any other building, so the architects did have to expand the existing foundation in order to fit their plans. They also had to figure out how they were going to get all that marble from Mt. Pentelicon to the construction site. This was one of the most difficult tasks as the marble blocks were extremely heavy. The men only had access to simple tools such as pulleys, levers, and ropes. This led to many accidents as sometimes the ropes would break and huge marbles would slide down the mountain causing a lot of injuries in their wake. It is said that one of the stones that was meant for the Parthenon’s columns is still at the bottom of a nearby ravine. Once the workers got the marble to the bottom of the mountain, they then had to transport it to the construction site. They used specially made carts drawn by up to sixty oxen. Then they had to move the marbles up the hill to get to the Acropolis. The workers used another sets of ropes, pulleys, and sleds to get these marbles up the hill. It took almost two days to move a single stone from the quarry to the Acropolis and cost 300 drachmas which was equivalent to a year’s salary for an average