The Parthenon

The Parthenon was built to honor the Hellenic victory over the Persians after the Greco-Persian Wars. It was built between 447 and 438 BC during the Delian League, but the decorations lasted until 432. At the end of the 6th century AD, it was turned into a Christian church and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In the mid-15th century, it was converted to a mosque after the Ottoman conquest. A Venetian bomb hit it during the Morean War in 1687, and the explosion seriously harmed it. Several large-scale restorations have been done since 1975 and opened for visitors.