Get smart curated videos delivered to your inbox.   SUBSCRIBE
The Kid Should See This

The Parthenon and Ancient Athens, an animated virtual tour

Watch more with these video collections:

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.”

inside the Parthenon

“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.”

Statue detail
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.

sections of the ancient city

“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.”

The Agoura

“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.

This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.

Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.

🌈 Watch these videos next...

The Pyramids of Giza, a 2-hour (mostly) slow TV walking tour

Rion Nakaya

The prehistoric cave paintings of Caverna De Pedra Pintada

Rion Nakaya

The ancient secrets revealed by deciphered cuneiform clay tablets

Rion Nakaya

Sudan’s Pyramids of Meroë, the ancient capital of the Kushite Kingdom

Rion Nakaya

Power beards, a Getty Museum 2-minute review

Rion Nakaya

Pictographs, cuneiform, and the history of writing, a Getty 2-Minute Time Machine

Rion Nakaya

Papyrus makers in Egypt keep their 5,000-year-old craft alive

Rion Nakaya

Moving and restoring an ancient Greek mosaic

Rion Nakaya

Matiate, the hidden underground city beneath Midyat, Turkey

Rion Nakaya