At this end of the Parthenon, look for the cranes, the scaffolding, and the bright white marble set in among the old honey-colored stone. That white marble is new. It was cut in the last few decades from the same mountain the ancient builders used, and in a century or so it will have weathered to the same color as the rest. It's there because of a man named Nikolaos Balanos.
Balanos was the engineer in charge of restoring the Acropolis for about forty years, from the end of the eighteen nineties to the eve of the Second World War. He was energetic and ambitious, and he got things done. He stood the fallen columns of the Parthenon's north side back up, rebuilt walls, and gave the building back much of the outline people recognize from postcards.
He also used iron.
The ancient builders fastened their blocks together with iron clamps too, but they sealed every clamp in molten lead, so water could never reach it. Balanos skipped the lead. He used cheaper iron and packed it in concrete,
which he believed would keep the water out. It didn't. Over the decades rain worked into the joints, the iron rusted, and rust takes up more room than iron. Inside the marble, his clamps swelled, and slowly split open the blocks they were meant to hold together. He'd stamped his initials into every clamp he set, so the people pulling them out today know exactly whose work they're holding.
When th
