For the past 230 years or so, the story that was sculpted into the frieze of the Parthenon, the most influential building in the western world, has seemed fairly straight-forward, depicting a civic ...

Dedicated to Athena Parthenos, or "Athena the Virgin," the magnificent Parthenon stands atop the Acropolis, on the site of another lost temple to Athens' patron goddess. Little is known about this ...

The Parthenon was one of the most famous monuments of the ancient world. But today its columns are crumbling to dust. Its current state isn’t due to wear and tear from exposure to the elements over ...

We can only imagine how glorious the Parthenon must have appeared in the middle of the fifth century B.C., with worshippers gathered in its towering central sanctuary paying tribute to a 40-foot, gold ...

View of one of the 46 outer columns of the Parthenon, showing the precisely executed fluting (or vertical grooves). Hand-carving these flutes after the erection of the columns was one of the most time ...

The following essay has been adapted from the new book The Parthenon Marbles Dispute: Heritage, Law, Politics (Hart / Bloomsbury, 2023) by Alexander Herman, director of the Institute of Art and Law. I ...

The Elgin Marbles, sometimes referred to as the Parthenon sculptures, are a collection of marble sculptures that originally adorned the top of the exterior of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, and are ...

This story appears in the March/April 2017 issue of National Geographic History magazine. During the 1700s, a European Grand Tour was a rite of passage for the sons of wealthy families. Lasting for up ...