2,350 tons of marble restored, replaced for Acropolis restoration

Athens - Some 2,350 tons of marble were restored or replaced over the past three decades for the massive project to restore the ancient Acropolis monuments, reports said Friday. Maria Ioannidou, a senior Culture Ministry official was quoted by the Greek daily Kathimerini as saying more than 1,000 architects and archaeologists restored or replaced a total of 2,350 tons of marble during the restoration project. She said preservation experts have used 500 cubic meters of new marble from ancient quarries located on Mount Pendeli, the site just north of Athens where the ancient Greeks originally found the marble used to build the Acropolis monuments. Thirty years into the project to restore the 2,500-year-old Acropolis monuments, officials have said the end is at last in sight. 'We still need approximately 15.8 million euros (21.8 million dollars) to complete the restoration of the west side of the Acropolis,' said Ioannidou. The project has involved painstaking repairs to the main Parthenon and Athena Nike temples, as well as the massive Propylea Gate. All three suffered from decades of exposure to Athens pollution and a flawed restoration attempt in the 1930s, when workers used iron clamps in their repairs that eventually rusted and cracked the marble. With the Athena Nike temple, an elegant Ionic structure located at the entrance to the citadel, the whole building had to be taken down piece by piece in 2000. Repairs have also be done to the Acropolis fortification walls which date back to Mycenaean times, in the 13th century BC. For years tourists visiting the ancient rock have been greeted by scaffolding, which many complain is an eyesore. While officials said they want to have as little scaffolding up as possible, it will never completely disappear from the sight.