So for today's visitors, too, the traditional heaviness of the Doric order is transformed by the austere elegance and harmony of forms and proportions, while the white Pentelic marble enhances the in play of light and shadow on the temple's majestic structures. The decorative features of the Parthenon, completed in 432 B.C. flourished in political , civic and religious significance.

The sculptures were entirely designed and perhaps also executed by Phidias, assisted by some of Attica's finest emerging artistic talents. Works that survived the fury of Christian fundamentalists after the Edict of Theodosius II (of AD 395), Muslim iconoclasm after the Turkish conquest of 1456 and Venetian cannon-fire in 1687 * can be seen still in situ, in the Acropolis Museum nearby, in the British Museum in London and in the Louver in Paris.

* The Venetians under leader Captain Mourozini besieged the Acropolis. The disaster happened on 26 of September in 1687 when a cannon ball hit the Parthenon. Due to the ammunition stored there by the Turks the cannon ball exploded and the Parthenon was destroyed. Many years later the English  Ambassador in Constantinople received permission from the Turkish authorities to remove sculptures from the metopes of the temple.

In 437 B.C. the architect Mnesicles began his project for the Propylaea, the monumental new gateway to the sanctuary of the Acropolis, on the site of a much more modest one built under Pisistratus. After five years work, almost certainly by the same craftsmen who had only recently completed the Parthenon, the Propylaea became the point of arrival for the last, winding ramps of the Sacred Way. The elegant small temple of Apteros Nike ( Wingless Victory ), stands on the SW bastion of the Propylaea. The goddess whose wings were cut off so she could never leave the city of Athens.

The last addition to the Acropolis before the end of the 5th century B.C. was the new temple of Athena Polias, known throughout history as the Erechthion, after the Attic name for Poseidon (the old patron of the city). It was built north of the Parthenon, between 421 and 405 B.C, to a plan by Philocles or according to some - Callicrates or Mnesicles. The Ionic portico with six columns on the east gives access to the cella, where the ancient wooden cult icon of Athena Polias was devotedly kept.

On the west side, on different levels, were spaces for the cults of Poseidon Erechtheum, Hephaestus, the hero Butte and the serpent - boy Erichthonius, particularly dear to Athena. The famous porch with the Caryatids marked the legendary tomb of Cecrops.

The six beautiful statues of young women wearing Ionic costumes are perhaps the work of one of the best disciples of Phidias, Alcamenes.
Outside the building on the west side grew the sacred olive tree traditionally believed to be the gift of Athena in her dispute with Poseidon. On the north side a high Ionic portico protected the mark left by the trident thrown by Poseidon to make a sea -water spring gush from the rock.