The Marvels of Ancient and Modern Greece
The Editor | Jul 09, 2009 | Comments 0
During the course of their Fellowship, the Athens Fellows had some remarkable opportunities to see some of the wonders of Greece, ancient and modern.
What could be more evocative of the lost spendors of ancient Greece than examining fragments from a shipwreck once explored by Jacques Cousteau — or more amazingly modern than seeing the computer which archeologists have reassembled from those fragments?
What could be more moving than climbing down from the Acropolis and the remnants of the Parthenon — and walking into the new Acropolis Museum and its remarkable reconstruction of this ancient wonder?
And what could be more timeless than sailing the wine-dark seas of the Aegean itself?
Whether it was skimming the Aegean from island to island, venturing within the historic halls of the Hellenic Parliament (where an unexpected honor awaited the Fellows), or looking deep into the excavations revealed during the construction of the Athens Metro system — with the engineer/CEO who built it and the Athens 2004 Olympic stadiums — the Athens Fellows had unparalleled opportunities to see the best of Greece, from the ancient to the modern.
At the Acropolis
At the Acropolis
Where else in the world can you be surrounded by ancient landmarks like the Odeon, the Areopagus the Agora, and the Pnyx — the birthplace of democracy — and still be awestruck when you walk through the gates of the Acropolis and see the Parthenon?… [read the full story]
Athens Fellows at the just-opened New Acropolis Museum
Words simply cannot do justice to the experience of walking down from the familiar ruins of the Acropolis, and into the museum which so perfectly displays the great treasures and fragments that once graced the hill just outside the new museum’s windows… [read the full story]
Dinner looking up at the Acropolis
What could be better for a group of Greeks than sharing a lovely dinner (and great conversation) while sitting together under the stars — with the breath-taking sight of the Parthenon gracing the Acropolis just across the way, and the moon gently rising above it all?… [read the full story]
The Antikythera Mechanism at the National Museum of Archeology
Looking at what is now considered the world’s first mechanical computer — and considered by at least one expert as being “more valuable than the Mona Lisa” — one is flooded with dozens of intriguing questions: Who made it?… Who owned it?… What if it had not been lost? What kind of world would we be living in today?… [read the full story]
With Leonidas Kikiras at the Athens Metro
With the builder of the of the Attica Metro, Leonidas Kikiras
Standing in front of a 20-foot tall glass wall revealing the multiple layers of Athenian history uncovered by the Metro project’s excavations — a wall stretching the entire length of the Syntagma Square station — Mr. Kikiras explained how teams of archaeologists worked ahead of, then alongside of, engineers for a total of six years… [read the full story]
Live! from the Hellenic Parliament at Syntagma Square. It’s…
The Athens Fellows go from being silent observers of a session of the Hellenic Parliament, to being the honored guests… [read the full story]
An Aegean Adventure
Out to the islands!
By 8:30 we were underway, cutting across the dark waters of the Saronic Gulf (named for the mythological king Saron), past the island of Salamis, famous as the locale of the world-changing Battle of Salamis. [read the full story]
Filed Under: Day by day with the Fellowship IN ATHENS • FEATURED
