Everyone's seen the ruins in Athens, and thanks to the movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, more people now know about the Parthenon replica in Nashville, TN. Here are a few images if you don't have the airfare.
The lower level is a combination museum and gallery space, but photography isn't allowed there. This statue was in the upstairs for a long time, but has been replaced with a full-sized one.
The statue of Athena in the main portion of the temple is very close to 40 feet (10 metres) tall. The pediment is somewhere around 4.5 feet (1.5 m) tall.
Each of these doors weighs 7.5 tons (15,000 lbs). Measuring 7 feet wide, 24 feet high, and 1 foot thick, they are considered to be the largest matching set of bronze doors in the world. They are made of solid bronze, and are balanced on steel hinges, so they don't need the semi-circular track in the floor to help bear their load. The ancient ones were most likely wood covered with bronze plate and would have needed to roll on the track to avoid cracking the stone.
Detail of one of the second set of bronze doors
The side galleries contain cast replicas of ruins from the Athenian Parthenon, generally pieces of sculpture from the two triangular pediments. Each one has an indication of where on the pediment it came from, and this information is also posted on each pedestal in Braille--a nice touch. (The entire building is also wheelchair-accessible.)
Above, Athena and Zeus as depicted on the pediment (below).
This approximately 4-foot tall gryphon is a mate to the four who guard the corners of the roof.
