Go back in time to Ancient Athens in the late 5th century B.C.E., “the way it would look in the years before the defeat in the Peloponnesian War” (431 to 405 B.C.E.). This 6.5-minute CGI reconstruction by Ancient Athens 3D provides a 3D-rendered tour of The Parthenon, the most famous building in Greece. From the caption:
“It is a temple made of white Pentelic marble and was dedicated to goddess Athena, the patroness of the city of Athens. The construction began in 447 BC after the orders of the Athenian statesman Pericles. The architects were Iktinos and Callicrates, while the supervisor of the sculpture decoration was Phidias. The construction was completed in 438 BC and the last sculptures were placed in 432 BC.”
“It is a buildingof doric architecture, combining features of the Ionic order, too. The sculptures can be divided in three types: the metopes, the pediments, and the frieze.
“Most of the Parthenon sculptures were taken in 1801-1812 by Lord Elgin and are now in the British Museum while most of the rest are in the Acropolis Museum.”
Then fly over the city’s major monuments and key areas with the virtual tour of Ancient Athens below, including The Parthenon, the Temple of Athena Nike, the ancient Agora, the Temple of Hephaestus, and Kerameikos, to name a few.
“The city of Athens was completely destroyed by the Persian army in the years 480-479 BC. In the years that followed, the Athenians managed to rebuild their city and by the middle of the 5th century BC, the statesman and general Pericles ordered an extensive construction programme that made Athens the centre of classical Greece.”
“It was the time when the great temples on the Acropolis hill were built (Parthenon, Erechtheion) and many buildings of public administration for the Athenian Democracy…
“The 3d reconstructions were made after the most recently published international research and a great effort was made to be as accurate as possible. Of course, simplifications and artistic license are present in order to technically manage a big project as this one.”
Find more videos at Ancient Athens 3D on YouTube.
Then watch these related history videos on TKSST:
• Ancient Greek and Roman artworks were brightly painted: How do we know?
• Moving and restoring an ancient Greek mosaic
• How to Make a Tesserae Mosaic
• Greek Legacy: How the Ancient Greeks shaped modern mathematics
h/t Open Culture.
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