Parthenon

For centuries, scholars have been fascinated by the way the Parthenon, the crown jewel of Athens’ Acropolis, was illuminated, especially given the stories of how the massive statue of Athena Parthenos stood bathed in light within the relatively dark interior. Now, a new study led by archaeologist Juan De Lara of Oxford University has explained how the ancient Greeks designed their temples to make sure the light would keep their most important statues in the spotlight at all times, both figuratively and literally. De Lara’s research, published in The Annual of the British School at Athens, uses 3D modeling and computer-generated imagery to explore how sunlight interacted with the Parthenon as a structure, and with the statue of the goddess