high atop the acropolis in athens greece stands one of the most magnificent
and most aesthetically pleasing structures in the world the parthenon this 23 000 square foot temple
was constructed using a hundred thousand tons of radiant white marble the exterior of the parthenon
is lined with 46 colossal columns which strikingly appear to be laid out in the shape of an exact
rectangle and what's more astonishing is that the more than thirteen thousand stone blocks
used to assemble the parthenon were precisely fitted together without the use of mortar
which begs the question how were the ancient greeks able to build something that looks so
perfect the parthenon is an amazingly beautiful structure the design the spacing of each stone is
so perfect that it inspires just to look at the proportions are so exact for a large building
it is an amazing thing and it lifts the spirit upward built beginning in 447 bc on the orders
of the famed statesman and general pericles the parthenon celebrates the athenians victory
over persian invaders who had tried to conquer the city for 50 years athens during the time of
the building of the parthenon is an incredible cosmopolitan vibrant city it's producing art
literature sculpture architecture it's the manhattan of the 5th century
bc and i think if you're an athenian citizen walking doing your everyday work
and then you see the acropolis in the center of the city this incredible shining hill
and then you see the parthenon the gleaming marble the biggest and most beautiful greek temple
that existed at least in mainland greece at this point you'd be filled with a sense of wonder
although most of the interior of the parthenon has decayed due to the ravages of time
the rectangular symmetry of its exterior looks flawless
to this day but strangely for a temple that was clearly built with perfection in mind
what makes the parthenon so fascinating is actually its imperfections
not only were the greeks masters of geometry they were also masters of optical illusions
they knew the fact that your eyes place tricks on you therefore they built the parthenon slightly
incorrectly quote unquote to compensate for this so that the net result is perfection the parthenon
is a rectangle but there are no right angles in the entire building everything is slightly
off the columns look straight from below but they are slightly tilted toward each other
so if you were standing at the base of the parthenon and if the columns didn't stop after a
certain number of feet but they kept on going all the way up into the sky you would see the columns
meeting if they were long enough to actually meet this is a very curious thing that the builders did
it turns out that the parthenon does not have straight parallel lines at all the columns are
not vertically cylindrical at all they bulge by about an inch at the center of the cylinder
so for example the human brain looking at a column will actually think that the waist is pinched
your eye thinks that the center of the cylinder is shrunk to compensate for that
the columns of the parthenon bulge there's no way this could have been an accident
but is that all the greeks were trying to achieve an optical illusion or could they have had another
purpose in mind when they built the parthenon why do we create monuments like the path along
and the answer is we want to try and imitate the divine the divine was seen as perfection the gods
are seen as perfection and so sacred geometry has been incorporated into the parthenon in the
belief that it was now endowed with some kind of divine power and this was done very specifically
to connect the mundane with the divine to create the connection between this world and the next
is the unique design of the parthenon some kind of attempt to connect to a higher power
according to some researchers the answer is yes and they claim that the fact that the
parthenon still stands and that it still looks perfect and pleasing to the eye is a testament
to what its architects were striving to build something eternal everlasting and perhaps divine
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