The+Propylaea+by+Stevie+O'Neill


 * The Propylaea **

// The Propylaea was the entrance to the acropolis and in ancient times people had to be ritually clean to enter. It was built under the general direction of Pericles like most of the other buildings on the acropolis, They started build //// ing in 437 BC an //// d stopped in 432 BC although they had not finished it. There had to be security on the Propylaea as the state treasury was kept on the acropolis and to stop slaves from getting in because they could claim protection of the gods. The Propylaea is said to be the first building to have Doric and Ionic columns, with the columns having the same proportions as those on the parthenon. There was a central building with two wings as shown in the layout below. The wing on the north was famous for having important paintings of Greek battles. //

// The Propylaea was made of white Pentelic marble like the parthenon, with gray Eleusinian marble or limestone. It was the first building of its kind that had a complex, unsymmetrical shape with each wing being slightly different. Because of the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta the Propyleae was never completed. //