The Parthenon!!!!!

The best part about Athens is that you can be walking around a building built in 500 B.C. or you can be walking the modern graffiti clad streets. When people talk about Athens, one of the first things that comes to mind is the Parthenon. But the thing that most people don't know about Athens is the extent of the graffiti and tagging. When many businesses failed or went bankrupt in Greece countless people lost their jobs. In Athens, they all had nothing to do so that has resulted in many people turning to graffiti. The streets of Athens are plastered with tagging and graffiti everywhere. But that hasn't slowed down the streams of tourists flocking in to see one of the oldest building in Athens.

The Parthenon is one of the oldest buildings in the world and the most visited place in Greece. It was built in honor of Athena when Poseidon and Athena competed against each other to be named the protector of the city of Athens. Athena won and Athens was named in her honor and inside the Parthenon there was a 13 meter tall ivory and gold statue of Athena. Over time the temple was taken over by different nations and armies and each time it was ransacked and destroyed more. In 1857 a Venetian general shot at it with canons triggering the Turkish ammunition stored in it to explode. Over and over people took whole statues and pieces of them and stone carvings and now many bits of the Parthenon are in museums all over the world.  What's left of it today is being reconstructed and fortified to endure earthquakes and weathering.