Good Essay On Secrets Of The Parthenon

Becoming the symbol of Western Civilization, The Parthenon was built 25 centuries ago during the Golden Age of Greece, a unique period of time when the Western ideas such as art, beauty, science and democracy have emerged. Having been rocked by earthquakes, shattered by gunpowder, even set on fire, the Parthenon still kept its beauty , even though it changed a little its shape but now architect and archeologist are trying to rebuild by imitating the workmanship of the ancient Greeks for recreate the image of what was once the Parthenon.
The ancient Athenians spend around just eight or nine years to build the construction of Parthenon, during the period between 438 and 437 b.c., dates provided from inscribed financial accounts but for the restoration processes all the people involved in this project are striking to recreate it from more than 30 years.
The unique architecturally detail of each of the 46 columns is presented by a unique curve that each column presents a gently curving profile which leans inward. Even if the building looks straight, the architects discovered that the building barely has a straight line in it. The curves are placed “in the middle of the lines of the stylobate, about six and three-fourths centimeters high.” (Secret of the Parthenon, 2008)
In the Golden Age of Greece, Pericles was responsible with the rebuilding program at the Acropolis Complex. The democracy played an important role in the reconstruction of the Acropolis, because it was the first time when this political system was implemented and people could put of vote in deciding who wanted to reconstruct the building.
During the construction of the building red clay was used in piecing together the components of the temple structure inside the surface of one of the blocks, in an attempt to see if between matches exists a perfect fit. It was a challenge to come up with common measurements for the building structure but the diverse workforce supposed that the early builders should have come with a way to convert measurements due to a stone that they found on the island of Salamis where the stone presented all the competing Greek measurements of the time. Even if the blocks seemed to be the same, each of ones presented noticeable and individual information as height or cutting. The precise of the cutting was calculated in millimeters which made the difference in putting the marble blocks together.
The human body played a big role in the Greek Architecture because the ancients Greeks considered that the ideal human body proportions were an inspiration for the architectural proportions. Fundamental justifications in the measurements was found in the anthropomorphic principles that were superimposed in Salami’s drawing leaving to see a tremendous correspondence. The proportion of the body could been transpose into a ratio of 1 to 1,6 which was attributed on that time to Pythagoras considered to be the golden ratio, the mathematical formula of beauty. Although another ratio was found more prevalent in the Parthenon and that was 4:9. It measured the distance “between the width of the columns and the distance between their centers, and the height of the facade to its width.” (Secret of the Parthenon, 2008)
For a precisely alignment of the marble piece of the Parthenon, the ancient builders used a blocked of wood fitted together, which was placed in each half of the center of two column piece being joined. It was really hard to construct the curved columns without the overall architectural plans but the builders were able to find a solution. They may have used a scaled-down version of the entasis curve as a template for the entire column.
Manolis Korres, the person responsible with the Acropolis Restoration Program sustained that he had chosen to preserved what had been survived from more the 2500 years ago, a majestic beauty and a symbol of perfection in terms of construction an architectural jewel even if it take longer in time than to approximate Pantheon’s original state.
The diverse work crafts encountered a series of difficulties in trying to rehabilitate the Parthenon. It was a big challenge to achieve again such an impeccable proportions and balance with a level of precision calculated in fractions of a millimeter even with the modern tools. They needed to work with the delicacy of diamonds cutters. For making new block of breaks to fit in with the old blocks, the team recruited one of the most experienced craftsmen from the Tinos Island who used “a simple pointing device—the three-dimensional equivalent of a pantograph, which is a drafting instrument for precisely copying a sketch or blueprint—to mark and transfer every bump and hollow from the ancient stone to its counterpart surface on the fresh block.” (Secret of the Parthenon, 2008)
In conclusion, the work is meticulous, time consuming and requires extreme attention to details but all the effort made is worth it for bringing again to life one of the most beautiful and astonishing building from Acropolis of which Korres say it is “A reminder of man’s power to create, as well as to destroy.” (Smithsonian)

Works cited:

Glassman, G. “Secret of the Parthenon.” Nova.29 January 2008. Web. 30 January 2015. Available at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/secrets-parthenon.html
"Unlocking Mysteries of the Parthenon- Page 3 | History."Smithsonian.N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2015. Available at http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/unlocking-mysteries-of-the-parthenon-16621015/?no-ist=&page=3