Fixing the ruins

Oct. 28, 2008

One of the disappointing things about Europe is the scaffolding on everything. The metal and wooden platforms creep up the sides of nearly every cathedral, holy site and ruin like a fungus that attacks healthy trees. Nowhere is it perhaps more apparent than at the Acropolis in Athens.

I went on a walking tour led by a funny, dorky but knowledgeable South Carolinian named Walter. He has spent the better part of the past four years in Athens trying to convince his would-be in-laws to allow him to marry their Greek daughter. Walter's been earning a living giving these walking tours of the sites, a tour so comprehensive you really don't need more than a day in Athens to see it all.

Visiting the Acropolis all covered in construction material was a let down. The Temple of Nike Athena, the goddess of victory, was completely covered. Walter told us it was once a grand temple with a statue of the goddess, her wings chopped off because the Ancient Greeks feared she would fly away from the city. It was hard to picture, beneath all the metal bars and construction zone tape.

The Parthenon itself was buzzing with workers buffing the marble clean.

The Greek government is undertaking a controversial project to fix the temples and ancient theaters at the Acropolis. Workers are digging up fallen columns to re erect in their historic sites. In places where the columns and other pieces of building are missing, the government is just bringing in newly cut marble to resemble the old.

We left the temples on high and descended to the Agora, the ancient market place that was the center of life in Ancient Greece. This I found even more depressing. I didn't take many photos there because there was nothing to take pictures of. There were pieces of cut columns strewn about an overgrown, lumpy yard. There were empty pedestals with writings about the grand statues that they once held. All the statues that actually remained were devoid of limbs and heads. The place reminded me of a neglected and abandoned cemetery.

Walter told us the Greeks are very proud of their ancient history, but still smart from the centuries of war and the decline of their once great civilization.

"Either the Persians destroyed it, the Turks dismantled it, or the British stole it," Walter said.

The reconstruction of the sites is an attempt to bring back the beauty of the old.

But aren't they called ruins for a reason?