‘WE’VE been very patient, but now we just want our Marbles back. There is already space in the Acropolis Museum just for them,” explains my e-bike guide Fernando.
“The British Museum have had them too long and now it’s time they came home.”
Finally it looks like that dream may become a reality for Athens, a city on the cusp of regaining its Marbles.
The events that led to Athens losing its priceless (in every way) Elgin Marbles (or Parthenon Sculptures) had a Scotsman centre stage. Thomas Bruce, Seventh Earl of Elgin, was born in Fife in 1766.
He bludgeoned huge sections of 2500-year-old sculptures from the Acropolis and shipped them to Britain, insisting he had permission from the Ottoman rulers. Even that supposed permission is mired in controversy and Lord Byron at the time labelled his actions “vandalism”.
There have been rumours of the Elgin Marbles’ return before, but the current momentum seems more serious. Earlier this month, a Greek newspaper reported that British Museum chair George Osborne – yes that George Osborne – has already held secret meetings with the Greek Prime Minister.
All roads in Athens lead to the Acropolis; you could argue that all roads in Western civilisation lead from it. It is that important a site. And an imposing one too.
Returning to Athens my breath is always taken away when I first encounter it rising like a rock and marble leviathan from the teeming city below. There is nowhere quite like the Acropolis, a giant edifice of unrivalled cultural, historical, and spiritual importance to Greece. And the world.
The best view of the Acropolis is from Mars Hill. I stand here with the old Agora and a sprinkling of temples to one flank, but it’s impossible not to be seduced by the other side, where the hulk of the Parthenon and the “lesser” temples soar atop the Acropolis up a set of steps that it feels like are ascending into the heavens.
Scotland's stolen treasures
As a Scotsman in Athens I feel both guilt and a deep empathy. We have lost our own treasures to the British Museum, not least the Lewis Chessmen.
Fernando has heard about them too: “Maybe if we get ours back it will start a trend and you’ll get yours too,” he smiles. I promise to invite him over to see them when we do.
It’s easy for the Acropolis to dominate a visit to Athens, to drown out everything else, especially when you can spend days at the landmark Acropolis Museum – a massive purpose-built treasure that brings the treasures at the heart of Greece alive.
But if you become too fixated you miss out, like visiting Edinburgh and not venturing beyond the castle ramparts.
I speed up my sightseeing with Fernando’s Solebike. They offer brilliant guided e-bike tours. I had my reservations as the local traffic can be dire, but they’ve planned routes steering away from traffic, zipping around the sights.
You get an ear piece so your small group is in constant contact. We take in the Acropolis, but also push on to the mighty Temple of Zeus, the orgy of marble that is the Olympic Stadium (where the first modern Olympic Games were held in 1896) and the triumphant Hadrian’s Arch. Yes, it’s dedicated to that wall-building Roman Emperor.
Ancient wonder and modern delights
Wandering around Athens you are walking with the ghosts of Aristotle and Plato.
Today’s Athens would be unrecognisable to them and not just because of the modern developments of a city of five million souls, but also as the Greek Empire suffered such a calamitous collapse that much of its treasures were lost as quickly as its dignity.
You can mourn the great losses or celebrate the riotously fun city that has exploded around the Aegean Sea today. I do the latter, easing around the postcard-perfect Anafiotika district, a wee Greek town within a city that somehow survives close to the Acropolis. I guarantee this oasis will make you yearn to see more of the country.
The tourist district of Plaka is popular, with good reason, and is a great place to sit with a heart-starting Greek coffee by a chunk of unexplained ruins that your guidebook doesn’t even mention. T
he restaurants here offer a greatest hits of Greek cuisine, with the likes of moussaka and kleftiko; Greek wines are seriously underrated too.
Culture and history, of course, is never far away in Greece. You could spend months working your way through the city’s museums. Don’t miss the National Archaeological Museum, the Islamic Art Museum and the Museum of Cycladic Art.
As I sail out of Athens, the sunset burns over this most ancient of cities. I hope it’s setting too on the age when you could hack off priceless sculptures and spirit them away.
Next time I hope I’ll be joining Fernando, beaming with pride as he shares with me the full glory of the Parthenon Sculptures.
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