Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-03-18
A MARBLE CITY.
Sidewalks Of Athens Paved
With Costly Stone.
The Rich Quarries Near the City Are
Now Idle.
Some of the Features and Character
istics of Modern Athens.

Some of the Features and Character
istics of Modern Athens.
Modern Athens is a city of marble.
Many of the dwellings and business
houses and nearly all the public edi-
fees are of that material, and even the
sidewalks on some of the streets are
paved with it. Over on the bosom of
Mount Pentelikon are two great CASH
es, which can be seen for many miles.
One of them is the quarry from which
was hewn the marble for building the
Parthenon, the Temple of Jupiter, the
Temple of Thesus and other famous
structures of ancient Athens. The
other wound was made in modern
times, and shows the source of the ma
terial of which the present City of
Athens was built. The authorities
have protected the old quarry for his
torical and archaeological reasons, and
nothing has been taken from it for sew
eral centuries. The other quarry is
Just as good. The stone is easily cut
and removed, and, although the grain
is not so fine as the Parian marble
from the quarries in southern Greece,
it is equal to that from the famous
Carrara quarries of Italy, and it costs
much less. l was wondering the other
day why some enterprising American
did not come over here and build a
railway to the quarry from Piraeus,
the seaport of Athens, so as to export
the marble, for none is exported now.
1t would be a distance of only about
twelve miles, not counting the curves
necessary to make the grade, and it
could be run on the gravity principle.
The use of marble and white stuccO
gives modern Athens an appearance of
| neatness and beauty which there is no
| SCOT to deface. The dust is very bad,
| however when the wind blows. The
streets are unpaved and the soil is
| clay that moistens into mud or dries
| into dust very readily, and a waiter al
ways stands at the door of the hotel
| with a feather buster to brush off your
| boots. One of the streets is named in
| honor of Aeolus, the god of the winds,
but he does not confine his attentions
| to that thoroughfare. Down in the old
part of Athens is a well preserved Oc-
| tagonal structure of marble called The
Tower of the Winds, and one might
suppose that it was the place where
| they originated, but the name seems to
have been given merely because it was
surmounted by weathervane. The
tower was built about hundred years
before Christ by Andronikos of Syria,
so an inscription tells us, as a compile
ment to the City of Athens, and was
adorned with a sun dial and clock
that was run by water power in some
ingenious manner, but the exact plan
of it's operation is not understood by
piled cistern and the cistern fed ma
chinery too complicated Tor modern
horologists to comprehend.
The streets leading east from the
Flower of Winds enter depression in
the side of hill inclosed by wall
which was formerly the site of a
school called the Diogeneion, supposed
to have been founded by Diogenes, the
famous cynic in the third century be-
fore Christ.
The palace Of the king is an ugly
modern structure, of which a nation
with the taste of the Greeks ought to
be ashamed. 1t looks like factory,
but the other public buildings are so
imposing and appropriate, particularly
a group of three-the university, the
; Academy of Sciences and the library
Il
in which the king resides.
1 doubt if there is a more beautiful
combination of buildings in all the
world. The academy, designed by a
Vienna architect, is asserted to be the
purest example of the classic school
that has arisen in modern times. The
surroundings are appropriate and the
entire street, called University street,
L t.. 81 ,x.t;. g
the Athenans as well as the spirit of
modern enterprise.
| pretty park adjoins the palace
grounds in the center of the city, and
one of the residence streets is lined
with pepper trees, but there is no
other shade in Athens except the
awnings stretched across the sidewalks
J in the business section to shelter show
windows and politicians, who sit at lit
tie tables in front of the cafes. The
CLEAN of the white marble is painful to
the eyes.
The architecture of most of the
houses in the new quarter of the town
is pure Greek, simple, dignified and
stately, a striking contrast to the pic
. turesque squalor and dilapidation of
lConstantinople and the ornate embell-
Iishment of the Italian cities. Some
|critics complain that the architecture of
Athens is monotonous, but it is the
monotony of pure and simple taste, and
, none can deny the beauty of the mod
ern residences. Most of them are con-
structed upon modern plans, especially
lin the interior. with an idea of meeting
1.-THE demand for conveniences, and 1 am
! sure that Athens today is more COM
Portable and beautiful as a city than it
Twas in the days of Perikles and Phidias.
The mountain Pentelikon can furnish
all the marble that is necessary to meet
the demands Of the builders for twenty
live more centuries.
In the old part of the city the streets
are narrow, dirty, and the odors rise to
Heaven. AS / have already told you in
a previous letter, the modern Greek
peasant is not a tidy person, nor is his
lwife, and the street that passes his
dwelling. the house in which he lives
and all his surroundings are repulsive
to the eye, the nostrils and the sense of
Iprcpriety.
There are three theaters in Athens,