Hadrian didn’t only focus on finishing the temple of Zeus and the Parthenon. His main goal was to expand Athens to the east, around 120 AD. To thank him for his efforts, the Athenians built this gate connecting old Athens to new Athens. The letters over the arch say, “This is Hadrian’s city,” while the other side says, “This is Thiseas’ city.” This would seem to be backwards, but in the ancient world, signs worked in the opposite way they do now—showing the end of things first instead of the beginning. This shows that the notion of time in ancient Greek world was completely opposite of what it is now. You “walked backwards” to see where you would be going because the past was the only thing you knew.
The gate makes sense in an urban sense but not architecturally. It is aligned at an odd angle to the temple for which it serves as an entrance. It also shows a Greco-Roman synthesis architecturally. Below is the arch and massiveness of the Roman world, and above is the religion and pediment of the Greek world. The beams coming out of the gate are where columns would have been, however the columns were completely ornamental, not structural.
The gate makes sense in an urban sense but not architecturally. It is aligned at an odd angle to the temple for which it serves as an entrance. It also shows a Greco-Roman synthesis architecturally. Below is the arch and massiveness of the Roman world, and above is the religion and pediment of the Greek world. The beams coming out of the gate are where columns would have been, however the columns were completely ornamental, not structural.