The Architecture of the Athenian Acropolis
The first scene to hit my eye is the Parthenon with a base ground resembling a rectangle. The temple has ionic columns sculpted by the people from Pheidias. Acropolis is a hill at the center of Athens city where the Parthenon is built. Before Parthenon, the initial plan included building a structure at the facade held in place with six columns. The architects aimed to surpass the temple of the god Zeus to make it a vast Doric temple in Greece. A total of twenty-five columns held the temple at the facade and flank. It is fascinating having columns of eight by seventeen, which even today’s constructions have not used. Even though the structure of the columns was uncommon and, in some thoughts, not workable, the architects succeeded in proportioning them at each corner by calculating dimensions and ratios to use through the application of a formula developed by two Italian known by the name Sicily at the end of the sixth century.
The architects finished furnishing the building in 447 AD, precisely after the Pericles order of fifteen years before. Another fantastic architectural work is the Prian marble, a sculpted temple older than the Parthenon because it was built in 415 AD. The constructs of Parian marble have Doric columns, each corner having six columns and thirteen columns on the other side (Hurwit and Jeffrey, 2021, 138). The construction of both Doric temple columns and Parian marble applies the knowledge used in the construction of Pentelic marble, the most noticeable temple in Greece in the 5th century BC. When Parthenon was built, it was declared the center of religious matters in Greece. One of the distinguishing decorative features of the Parthenon is the Ionic frieze, typical only in Athens. The sculpture was designed round at the top of the temple walls, running fifty-seven meters in length.
The sculpture of the Ionic frieze was designed by Pheidias primarily as a sign to show respect to the goddess Athena. Even though the temple of Hephaistos was also designed with an Ionic frieze, it was a Doric comprising triglyphs. Hephaistos temple was considered Theseus’s temple because it housed the remains of heroes who lived in Athens in the past. The architectural work of the Greeks made them famous worldwide as architectural engineers who later influenced various constructions in different parts of the world. For instance, the replica of the Parthenon found in Nashville is clear proof of the influence of their work around the globe. Nashville is the capital city of Tennessee State in the United States of America.
Ancient City of Petra
I was amazed at how Petra was carved from the face of rock when I saw it for the first time. It is a creative work in Jordan that I have never succeeded in unraveling the skill used to develop such a carving. The carving is enormous, and the aerial view provides a significant figure from the ground. The pictures and videos create the exact images of Petra deep in my mind, with only questions about how it was carved. At half of the video, I noticed that the rock is composed of different colors that enabled every creature to see it afar due to its unique nature in the area. Despite Petra city being encompassed by desert areas and rugged terrains, it had well-established water management structures that enabled it to model and maintain its beautiful architecture. The city looks extremely beautiful and is a suitable human residence. Many historians and archaeologists refer the Petra city using the word rose since the building blocks are rose in color. Our textbook shows a relationship between the Palace of Shapur I and the act of using blind arcades. However, there were many Roman architectures, such as sculptures in the treasury built with relief columns and intricate capitals. One of the standard interactive monument features in the older Nabataean kingdom is Petra city seems surrounded by rocks that are much harder to break in case of a surprise attack. The scenery is remarkable, especially how the whole set of carvings starts from the stones through sheets and then ends at the washbasins. Several arts across the entire city, including people’s homes, temples, sculptures, and tombs. The skills have different meanings depending on where they have been placed. For example, home carvings have different meanings from temple carvings. Sculptures were primarily used as decorations in areas where they were applied.
Limestone is excellent scenery with unique quality art of carvings that the artists of the ancient city of Petra carved in the whole world. The Corinthian columns with porticos dominate the treasury and always glow red. The arts are rough and tumble because of their age, but they still look attractive to the eye. The style employed in carving modern columns for government houses such as courts is accredited to the carvings in various buildings of Petra.
Caves at Lascaux
The virtual tour to Lascaux Cave in Montignac exposed me to various historical paintings, such as animal and human paintings though there were very few human paintings. The tour analysis is self-explanatory, with illustrations that were worked on with much care and high precision to ensure the real-life picture of the cave is attained online. Real-life situations are more convincing due to the beauty of experience and touch. Some of the beautiful sceneries are not easily noticeable by an adventurer when there is no clear view of sceneries. The images that portrayed the cave pictures were back in the 19th century. In 1963, people were restricted from accessing the cave after human activities threatened the paintings’ existence. The site was kept as a tourist attraction site. I realized that their animal paintings were so many throughout the tour compared to other images without explanation or clarification. Some of the most repeated animals in the photographs are oxen, horses, and deer, but the horses sometimes look like donkeys.
There is a bird painted next to another painting in the cave that looks like a young girl, the only painting of a human being across the entire cave. There was a massive painting of oxen that measured sixteen feet high on the wall in the Oxen Room. The Oxen Room is the most oversized in the cave and is considered sacred. The paintings show two groups of oxen facing each other, separated by a distance of twenty meters, and the big oxen standing between the two groups. The big oxen seem to make peace between the two oxen, which is perhaps why the room is considered sacred.
On the other hand, the painting of an ox, deer, and horse in a single illustration and a separate chamber conveys that the three animals were mainly slaughtered for meat and clothing. But out of the three animals, an ox was the most useful to them since it was helpful in household activities like plowing the land. It is worth noting that even though this cave painting scenery seems more of a hunting activity, it had a different use other than that, like religious matters. Some animals were mainly hunted for food, even though the cave paintings provided scanty information about animal hunting because it was against the divinity of the cave. The pre-historic art of animal paintings had a strong spiritual connection with animals that was emotional and helped both humans and animals survive harmoniously. In addition to animal and human relationships, some, like owls, cast a spell on human beings.
Pyramids at Giza
There are many big limestone blocks on the plateau where three towers of pyramids are built. Alongside buildings were small pyramids used as residents by queens, and others were used as tombs for the rich who wanted to be buried among the rich because it was the burial place for the kings, too, but the poor were not allowed to come near them or even touch their walls. Sphinxes of massive stones supported the small tomb pyramids. The three more enormous pyramids serve as the prominent memorials of the past generations during King Khufu’s rule, which was inherited by his son, King Khafre. Finally, his grandson, Menkaure, was a king in Egypt during the 4th rule of the dynasty. Statues of the three kings stand diagonally at the bank of the River Nile while facing the sun.
Today, the pyramids have significantly gained a different color due to climate changes, which attracted massive sandstones that have colored their khaki. Initially, they were covered with pure and white material at the top, which was smooth like glass that constituted gold capstones to make them shinier. Possibly, the gold-like capstones fixed at the apex of the pyramids were taken away by thieves many years ago. Of the three pyramids, only one that has remains of king Khufu remains in a tomb built on the right side where the structure of the tallest man in Egypt is. The statue took the artist more than twenty years to construct. One pyramid comprises more than 2.3 million blocks flaked from big limestone blocks, and it is four hundred and eighty-one feet tall. Between the two pyramids is the pyramid used by Khafre as his palace. On the pathway leading to the tomb where Khafre was buried, there is a greet sphinx, a creature with a body that looks like a lion’s, but the head resembles a man’s.
During ancient times, the sphinx was believed to be used by the god Ra to bring favor after one dies. The sphinx stands in an inclined position guarding the pyramid with its paws facing the primary entrance side of the pyramid. Many Egyptians and historians from different parts of the world believe that king Khafre created the structure and placed it near his pyramid. The pyramid belonging to Menkure is slightly smaller, but its chambers are more elaborate than Khafres’. Pharaoh was believed to connect people with gods and be responsible for all matters revolving around religion.
Work Cited
Hurwit, Jeffrey M. “12. The Parthenon and the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.” Periclean Athens and It’s Legacy. The University of Texas Press, 2021. 135-146.