Remarks
This «upper town», a focal point of civilization, occupies the summit of an abrupt rock. It is 270 m in length and 156 m wide, covering an area of 4 ha, and it dominates the lower town from a height of nearly 100 m. Although it contains remains of various epochs going back as far as the second millennium B.C., its main monuments (Propylaea, Temple of Athena Nike, Erechteion and the Parthenon) are masterpieces of the century of Pericles (5^th century B.C.). For some years work to protect the stone and replace the sculptures with copies has been necessary. If these restorations interest you, a visit to the Acropolis Research Centre is a must! You will enter the Acropolis by Beulé gate. This gate (late Roman epoch) was discovered in 1853 by the French archaeologist Ernest Beulé. Framed by two towers, it precedes the (Roman) staircase overlooked to the right by the temple of Athena Nike and to the left by the grey marble pedestal of the Hymetus which around 15 B.C. bore the quadriga of Agrippa, the son-in-law of Augustus. Before the Romans one entered the Acropolis at the bottom of the temple of Athena Nike, through a passage along the Sacred Way followed by the processions of the Panathenes. Behind Agrippa's monument, a platform will give you an attractive view over the hills of Philopappos, Pnyx and Areopagos. In the Middle Ages a staircase led down from this platform, to the Clepsydre spring, cleared in 1873.