Although the building was to undergo a number of changes, it remained largely intact until the seventeenth century. The early Christians turned the temple into a church, adding an apse at the east end. It was probably at this time that the sculptures representing the birth of Athena were removed from the centre of the east pediment and many of the metopes were defaced. The Parthenon served as a church until Athens was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in the fifteenth century, when it became a mosque. In 1687, during the Venetian siege of the Acropolis, the defending Turks were using the Parthenon as a store for gunpowder, which was ignited by the Venetian bombardment. The explosion blew out the heart of the building, destroying the roof and parts of the walls and the colonnade.
The Venetians succeeded in capturing the Acropolis, but held it for less than a year. Further damage was done in an attempt to remove sculptures from the west pediment, when the lifting tackle broke and the sculptures fell and were smashed. Many of the sculptures that were destroyed in 1687, are now known only from drawings made in 1674, by an artist probably to be identified as Jacques Carrey.
Answer: The statue is called Augustus of Primaporta. The dolphin is a symbol for the great victory Augustus had over Mark Anthony. The cupid symbolizes that he was descended from gods just like cupid is a descendant of Venus.
Circus nets are carefully designed in a way so that they absorb impact and shock on the human body upon a fall, minimizing the risk of harm and injury. A
circus net comprises of various ropes tied to different points of support. Upon impact
of a trapeze artist landing from a great height, the ropes flex and distribute the weight, enabling a steady and low impact landing. In this
way risk and harm to trapeze artists is minimized.
The history of this mausoleum lends a soul to its magnificence: a soul filled with love, loss and remorse.
If it had not been for love, the world would have been deprived of this magnificent building. An example of how deeply a man loved his wife, that even after she remained present only in the form of memory, he was sure that he would never leave him.
The man was the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan, and his love was the Persian Princess Mumtaz Mahal.
He was 14 when he met Mumtaz and fell in love with her. Five years later, in 1612, they married.
