Unusual weather covered the Acropolis with snow on Tuesday (February 16), turning the iconic Athens site into a scene from a holiday map.
An aerial photo of the complex, perched on a fortified hill above Athens, shows the Parthenon against a backdrop of white. The smaller Erechtheum, a temple dedicated to the gods Athens and Poseidon, is also visible.
Snow is a rare sight in Athens, but much of Europe has experienced exceptionally cold temperatures over the past week. According to the Associated Press, workers at the Eiffel Tower in France had to use a blowtorch to collect ice on the monument. Significant snowstorms also hit the UK and much of Eastern Europe as a series of low-pressure systems brought cold Arctic air southward, where it collided with humid, warmer air across the continent.
In Athens, some residents dealt with power outages and the cessation of public transportation while wet, heavy snow fell. Others broke out their skis on the hillsides of the cities. according to the AP.
The natural hill of the Acropolis has been fortified since at least the 13th century BC, when the top of the hill was home to the local Mycenaean ruler, according to the UN Educational, scientific and cultural organization (UNESCO). The elegant temples that still stand today were built in the fifth century BC
The Parthenon was raised as a celebration of the Greek victory over the Persians, who invaded in 480 BC and destroyed an earlier temple that once stood on the same site. In addition to the Erechtheum, the UNESCO World Heritage Site also contains a monumental gate known as the Propylaea and the Temple of Nike Athena, a small structure on the southwest corner of the hill.
The snow on the Acropolis is doomed to melt quickly. The temperature in Athens is expected to reach 38 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday (February 16), with the past weekend about 15 ° C. February the temperature in Athens averaged about 14 ° C (17 ° C), with a low of about 6 ° C.
Originally published on Live Science