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The
temple has two main purposes:
- It used to
house the statue of the god
( in a room
called “naos” or “cella”)The Parthenon used to shelter the statue
of Athena, Parthenos(young girl), it had been sculptured by Pheidias; it
was all in pure god (more than 1000 kg= 2000 pounds=about 285 stones) and
in ivory (as we say “chryselephantine”. It was
12 meters high(40 feet). This statue disappeared and was carried to
Constatinople.
-
It used
to contain the riches, the treasure of the city,
for an example (the room of treasure)
-
The entrance faces East but the pilgrims were not entitled in . It
was not a place of worship. The offices took place outside on an altar
standing in front of the temple
(see
map)
-
If the temple was surrounded with a colonnade (peristyle), as it
was the case, it was called “periptery”
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