into it and wrecked a portion of it, but part of the walls and some of
the fluted columns, which are more than six feet in diameter, are yet
standing. This building is regarded as the most perfect model of Doric
architecture in the world, and must have been very beautiful before its
clear white marble was discolored by the hand of time and broken to
pieces in cruel war. The Erectheum is a smaller temple, having a little
porch with a flat roof supported by six columns in the form of female
figures.

The Theseum, an old temple erected probably four hundred years before
Christ, is the best preserved ruin of ancient Athens. It is a little
over a hundred feet long, forty-five feet wide, and is surrounded by
columns nearly nineteen feet high. The Hill of the Pynx lies across the
road a short distance from the Theseum. At the lower side there is a
wall of large stone blocks and above this a little distance is another
wall cut in the solid rock, in the middle of which is a cube cut in the
natural rock. This is probably the platform from which the speaker
addressed the multitude that could assemble on the shelf or bench
between the two walls.

Some of the principal modern buildings are the Hellenic Academy, the
University, Library, Royal Palace, Parliament Building, various church
buildings, hotels, and business houses. The University, founded in 1837,
is rather plain in style, but is ornamented on the front after the
manner of the ancients, with a number of paintings, representing
Oratory, Mathematics, Geology, History, Philosophy, and other lines of
study. At one end is a picture of Paul, at the other end, a
representation of Prometheus. The museum is small and by no means as
good as those to be seen in larger and wealthier countries. The Academy,
finished in 1885, is near the University, and, although smaller than its