The Parthenon was built as an offering of thanks to Athena for the salvation of Athens and Greece in the Persian wars. It's the largest building in Greece, and is the highest point of the Acropolis. The Parthenon was (and still is) a tangible sign of the power and might of the Athenian state and remains famous for its architectural perfection and sculptural decorations. .
The Greek orders of architecture (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) became the basic design elements for architecture from ancient times to today. The Parthenon is a Doric(sturdy and simple) temple. There were three chief architects commissioned to rebuild the acropolis, and two of those, Ictinus and Callicrates, clearly intended the Parthenon to represent the Doric order in its most perfect form. .
Built on the existing foundation and platforms of an earlier structure, the Parthenon is a masterpiece of design and construction. The stereobates (bottom platforms) were stacked on top of each other with a little less mass then the previous structure and then the stylobate (top platform) was on top of the third stereobate. The floors bow inward with a range of 5 inches. The Doric columns sit directly on top of the stylobate, without a base, and all of them slant inward. Each column swells about one-third of the way up, called entasis, which gives the column an extra optical illusion that makes it look perfect to the eye. .
At the top of the columns there is a capital consisting of two parts with its rounded echinus and the tabletlike abacus. Then on top of the capital you have the entablature which has the parts: the Architrave(lintel), Frieze and Cornice(facia). You have two parts that make up the frieze, the triglyph's and Metopes. There were 92 metopes on the four sides of the temple, each separated by triglyphs(square blocks divided by groves into three sections) which narrates the 4 major battles the Greeks fought. There were 4 outer collonades(row of columns) and two inner collonades.