Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/74

 ATHENS of the temples that covered its summit, and may safely supply many details of the account. The principal buildings on the summit of the Acropolis were the Propylffia, the Erechtheum, and the Parthenon. The Propyleea served at once at an architectural embellishment and a military defence. Among the ancients it was more admired than even the Parthenon, for the skill with which the difficulties of the ground were overcome, and for the grandeur of the general effect. The approach was a flight of 60 marble steps, and was 70 ft. broad. At the top of the steps was a portico of six fluted Doric columns, 5 ft. in diameter and 29 ft. high. The side wings, on platforms, 78 ft. apart, had three Doric colums in antig front- ing upon the grand staircase. The north wing contained the Pinacotheca, a hall 35 ft. by 30 ; the hall of the south wing was 27 ft. by 16. Behind the Doric hexastyle was a magnificent hall 60 ft. broad, 44 deep, and 39 high, with Ruins of the Propytea. a marble ceiling resting on enormous beams, supported by three Ionic columns, on each side of the passage. At the east end of this hall was the wall, through which there were five entrances, with doors or gates. The central opening, through which the Panathenaic pro- cession passed, was 13 ft. wide and 24 ft. high ; those next the central are, on each side, 9 ft. wide, and the smallest 5 ft., the height varying in proportion. These gates were the only public entrance into the Acropolis. Within the wall, on the eastern side, was another hall, 19 ft. deep, its floor elevated about 4^ ft. above the western, and terminated by another Doric por- tico of six columns. The pediments and ceil- ings of this structure have been destroyed. Most of the columns remain, some of them en- tire, with heavy fragments of the architraves. Passing through the Propylsea, one came to the Erechtheum, on the left or north side of the Acropolis, and the Parthenon on the right, near the southern or Cimonian wall. The form of the Erechtheum was oblong, with a portico of six Ionic columns at the east end, and a kind of transept at the west, a portico of four columns on the north, and the portico of the caryatides, standing on a basement 8 ft. high, on the south. At the western end Portico of the Erechtheum, with Caryatides. there is a basement, on which are four Ionic columns half engaged in the wall, and support- ing a pediment. The eastern and western di- visions of the temple are on different levels, the eastern being 98 ft. higher than the west- ern. Enough remains of this extraordinary and beautiful temple to give a correct idea of its outward form ; but the interior is in so Ruins of the Erechtheum. ruinous a condition that the distribution and arrangement of the divisions are subject to the greatest doubt. There remains to be described the Parthenon, the noblest mon- ument in Athens. It was built of Pentelic marble, under the superintendence of Phidias,