Erechtheion

The Erechtheion or Temple of Athena Polias is an ancient Greek Ionic temple, on the north side of the Acropolis, Athens [1]. The extant building is the successor of several temples and buildings on the site [1]. Its precise date of construction is unknown; it has traditionally been thought to have been built from c. 421–406 BCE, but more recent scholarship favours a date in the 430s, when it could have been part of the programme of works instigated by Pericles [1]. The Erechtheion is unique in the corpus of Greek temples in that its asymmetrical composition does not conform to the canon of Greek classical architecture [1]. The classical Erechtheion is the last in a series of buildings approximately on the mid-north site of the Acropolis of Athens, the earliest of which dates back to the late Bronze Age Mycenaean period [1]. The entablature of the naos and north porch has a frieze of blue Eleusinian limestone that was decorated with white Pentelic marble figures attached by means of iron dowels [1].