The Parthenon, which, among the several masterpieces of the Acropolis, must be acknowledged the greatest, stood upon a rocky elevation in the citadel, which so far elevated the structure as to bring the pavement of the peristyle upon a level with the capitals of the columns of the eastern portico of the Propylæa. This was the same site which had been occupied formerly by an earlier temple to Minerva, known among the Athenians as the Hecatompedon on account of its proportions. The Parthenon of Ictinus is said to have cost one thousand talents, or what would be equal to about $1,100,000 of our money. It was begun the year 422 B.C., and completed at the expiration of sixteen years. It conformed to the usual shape of the Greek temples, being rectangular and peripteral. The length from east to west was two hundred and twenty-seven feet and seven inches, the width a little over one hundred and one feet. The Doric order was employed for the exterior, the columns which surrounded the cell on all sides being thirty-four feet in height, with a diameter of six feet at the base. There were forty-six of these columns, springing directly from the stylobate or steps, all fluted with twenty channels, and each carrying its share of a very beautiful entablature. The gables or pediments at each end of the temple were of flat pitch. The total height of the building from the steps to the top of the gables was sixty-four feet. White marble from Mount Pentelicum, “wrought,” as Mr. Kinnaird expresses it, “with the exquisite finish of a cameo,” was the material employed for the entire structure, with the exception of the supporting timbers of the roof, which were wood covered with marble tiles. The interior, to quote Mr. Kinnaird again, “enshrined the chryselephantine colossus with all its gorgeous adjuncts, and comprised sculptural decoration alone for one edifice exceeding in quantity that of all recent national monuments; consisting of a range of eleven hundred feet of sculpture and containing, on calculation, upward of six hundred figures, a portion of which were colossal, enriched by painting and probably golden ornaments. Here has been really verified the prediction of Pericles that, when the edifices of rival states would be mouldering in oblivion, the splendor of his city would be still paramount and triumphant.” In respect to the richness of its interior treasures, very much the same idea is expressed by Bishop Wordsworth, who says, in the course of his description of the building: “It would, therefore, be a very erroneous idea to regard this temple which we are describing merely as the best school of architecture in the world. It was also the noblest school of sculpture and the richest gallery of painting.”