To walk the galleries of the British Museum is to tour a world of antiquity.Nowhere is there a museum collection to compare with that of the British Musemn in the range of places it covers, nor in the depth of history that it records. Passing from one room to the next, visitors can both discover the unique identity of ancient civilizations and explore the connections that once linked them.

From mainland Greece on one side of the Aegean Sea and western Turkey on the other,this book brings together some of the great monuments of Classical antiquity. Drawing on the British Museum's unrivalled collection of Greek, Lycian and Karian architecture and sculpture, this is the first book to present its fascinating subject as one continuous story.Each monument is explained both as a work of art and as a historical phenomenon, revealing how the complex personaliry of individual buildings is bound up with the people who Kmded, designed, made, used, destroyed,discovered and studied them.Architecture played a crucial role in the enlightenment cuhure that flourished among the Ionian cities of western Turkey in the sixth century Be.]'his great new movement in art and natural philosophy saw the invention of the Ionic order and the construction on Samos, at Ephesos and at Didyma of temples on a colossal scale familiar to ancient Egyptians but not previously seen in the Greek world. In the fifth century BC this grand tradition successfully transplanted itself to the Acropolis of Athens where, in a fusion of the Doric and Ionic orders, the Parthenon,Propylaea, Erechthcnm and Nike tcmple carried architecture to new levels of sophistication.In the fourth century BC, with the collapse of Athens' empire and the restoration of Persian eontro westeru Turkey saw a renaissance.The rebuilding of the Artemision at Ephcsos and the construction of the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos gave thc ancient world two of its Seven Wonders.Lavishly illustrated and with specially commissioned line drawings, this book comprises a remarkable narrative of the art and architecture that has given inspiration to so much in Western visual culture.

Preface

Introduction

Map

Enlightenment and Renaissance

Greek Temples - Form and Meaning

The Temples of Artemis at Ephesos

The Parthenon and Its Sculptures

The Athenian Acropolis - Propylaea, Nike Temple and

Erechtheum

The Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai

Lycian Tombs

The Nereid Monument

The Mausoleum at Halikarnassos

The Temple of Athena Polias at Priene

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Illustration Ackalowledgements