Editing Parthenon (section)

===Independent Greece===
When independent Greece gained control of Athens in 1832, the visible section of the minaret was demolished; only its base and spiral staircase up to the level of the [[architrave]] remain intact.<ref>{{cite book |last=Murray |first=John |title=Handbook for travellers in Greece, Volume 2 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1884 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ac4GAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA317 |page=317}}</ref> Soon all the medieval and Ottoman buildings on the Acropolis were destroyed. The image of the small mosque within the Parthenon's cella has been preserved in [[Pierre-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière|Joly de Lotbinière]]'s photograph, published in Lerebours's ''Excursions Daguerriennes'' in 1842: the first photograph of the Acropolis.<ref>Neils, ''The Parthenon: From Antiquity to the Present'', p. 336 – the picture was taken in October 1839.</ref> The area became a historical precinct controlled by the Greek government. In the later 19th century, the Parthenon was widely considered by Americans and Europeans to be the pinnacle of human architectural achievement, and became a popular destination and subject of artists, including [[Frederic Edwin Church]] and [[Sanford Robinson Gifford]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carr |first=Gerald L. |title=Frederic Edwin Church: Catalogue Raisonne of Works at Olana State Historic Site, Volume I |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0521385404 |location=Cambridge, England |pages=342–343}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Collection: Ruins of the Parthenon |url=https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.121547.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728071050/https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.121547.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=28 July 2020 |website=National Gallery of Art |access-date=28 May 2020}}</ref> Today it attracts millions of tourists every year, who travel up the path at the western end of the Acropolis, through the restored [[Propylaea (Acropolis of Athens)|Propylaea]], and up the Panathenaic Way to the Parthenon, which is surrounded by a low fence to prevent damage.{{citation needed|date=September 2017}}
[[File:Flickr - Nic's events - London - 14-15 Dec 2007 - 067.jpg|thumb|Life-size pediment sculptures from the Parthenon in the British Museum]]