Architectural Genius by Brittany

Yasou! Welcome back to our tour of Greece! If you missed my first post you can quickly catch up by clicking HERE! One of my favourite and probably the most fascinating things about Greece is the enormous amounts of history and culture the land, and it's people, have been able to retain and maintain for thousands of years. Meaning that people are able to travel from all over the world, including me, and hopefully you, to experience some of the great wonders of the world today!

Picture I toke of the Parthenon when visiting the Acropolis in Athens

One of the most beautiful and well maintained monuments to visit in Greece is the Acropolis in the country's capital, Athens. As a UNESCO world heritage site, it is treasured as a window into the architectural genius of the time it was built, as it fits beautifully into the landscape. According to an online ancient history encyclopedia, an 'acropolis' is any citadel or complex built on a high hill. The most famous acropolis in the world being that of the Acropolis of Athens, Greece, built in the 5th century BCE. The most famous monument apart of the Acropolis is that of the Parthenon, known as the Temple of Athena (it was built to honour the goddess Athena (who presided over Athens) and make a statement to the world of the glory of the city), Pathenos ('Athena the Virgin' in Greek). (Sourced from: http://www.ancient.eu/Acropolis/).

Map/plan of the Acropolis. Image source: http://www.ancient.eu/image/1081/

Picture I toke of the stone work at the Acropolis

The rich history of Greece is so fascinating and something that I really enjoyed learning about while being there! This is only one of the many sites where tourists and locals are able to travel through history and admire the artistry and genius that has withstood the test of time. Stay tuned as in my following posts I will be taking you on an island cruise, show you some of my favourite foods, show you traditions and festivities you may like to experience at certain times of the year and some more places you defiantly should visit!

Brittany☺

Iran Part 2 by Poorya Mahdavi

Iran

Part 2 : Architecture

By Poorya Mahdavi

Hello and welcome to the second part of my blog, today we will be discussing Iran's breathtaking architectural talent, today I will show you a few places within Iran which are truely some sight seeing places.

Image source: http://danamotor.ir/Tehran_Azadi_Square_Flowers_2012.jpg

Pictured above is the Azadi tower, it is located in Azadi square within Tehran, it is a symbol of iran, and marks the entrance to the west of the city. Within the tower lies the Azadi museum, a theatre hall, and an art gallery, and sits 23 meters above the ground, and took almost 3 months to be completed and has a total of 286 steps within.

Before the tower was named "Azadi tower" it was known as Shahyad tower, however before the revolution it was a location for protest, and after the revolution had passed, the tower was renamed to Azadi translated to the freedom tower.

image source : http://whc.unesco.org/uploads/thumbs/site_1422_0005-750-0-20151104153828.jpg

The photo shown above is a photo taken within the Golestan palace it is a very important piece of memorabilia as it is one of the oldest monuments in Tehran, it was a sight which belonged to the royal people of iran, and was located within Tehran's citadel which was once closed to the public, it is now open to the public whom can visit the many sight seeing places within the palace such as the marble throne, the pond house and the famous Mirror Hall.

Image source : https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/6a/71/e0/6a71e05cb8aa8606151d121ba2ac6717.jpg

Pictured above is the ancient ruins of Persepolis, dating back to 515 BC, it is considered a world heritage site by UNESCO in 1979. The ruins were first commenced by Darius I, and the name Persepolis was given to it as it was the name of the town it resided in. The ruins was a place for surrounding countries to come together bearing gifts for the start of the new year to the residing king of the time.

Make sure to stay tuned for next weeks blog update where we will dive into more detail about the Iranian Culture and food.

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Incase you missed last weeks blog here is a link for it right here!

Part 1: Introduction

http://travelbuddiez.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/iran-by-poorya.html