The Acropolis of Athens was the great fortified rock in the middle of the city. It was also the city's religious centre and the focal point of the unified state of Athens. Its crowning glory was the Parthenon. Commanding views over land and sea were to be had from the summit of the great rock.
The approaches of an enemy army or navy could be seen long before it arrived at the city itself. In times of peril, the people could retreat inside the Acropolis and defend themselves from there. Those who valiantly resisted the Persians from the rock in 480 BC, however, succumbed after two weeks when the Persians scaled the steep side of the Acropolis.
The defenders were killed and the sanctuaries were destroyed. Most of the buildings that can be seen today on the Acropolis date from its rebuilding in the 440s BC under the direction of Pericles.
