DESPITE the heat, hundreds and thousands of tourists climb the steps up the Acropolis in Athens each day, to view the Parthenon and the other great classical buildings that are the crowning, glory of the Greek capital.
By day, the Parthenon can looks like an abandoned building site, surrounded by scaffolding and with large cranes inside the shell. But by night, viewed from below, it takes on a new beauty with the Sound and Light show that can be seen right across the city.
Archaeology and the great classical sites are a major reason for many tourists visiting Greece. But archaeology is also an emotive subject for Greeks.
Following concerted protests from Greek and German archaeologists and from the Athens Academy, building work on the Athens Metro came to a halt at the end of last month to allow geological tests to determine whether tunnelling was threatening the ancient Karameikos Cemetery close to the slopes of the Acropolis. And this month in Crete, staff at Knossos warned that immediate action is required to save the Minoan Palace.
But if the staff at Knossos fret about official indifference, the prospects for the Acropolis have improved in recent weeks, with a British television programme calling for the return of the so called Elgin Marbles to the Parthenon, and with President Kostis Stephanopoulos and the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Kostas Simitis, throwing their weight behind a campaign once identified closely with the late Culture Minister, Melina Mercouri.
The Acropolis has been a focus and nucleus during every phase in the development and growth of Athens, and became the heart of the first Greek city state. Under Pericles, the Parthenon took only 10 years to build with, in the words of Plutarch, "every architect striving to surpass the magnificence of the design with the elegance of the exterior."
The elegant exterior survived for centuries, and the Parthenon has served as Greek and Roman temple, Byzantine church, Frankish cathedral and Turkish mosque. By 1563 a minaret had been added, but a visiting Venetian diplomat found the buildings was still covered in sculptures and painted in bright colours. In 1687, the Venetians laying siege to the garrison on the Acropolis ignited a Turkish gunpowder magazine, blowing the roof off the Parthenon and giving the marbles their apricot tinged glow so admired by neo classicists of the 18th century.
At the beginning of the 19th century, a Scottish peer, Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, was British ambassador to the Porte. An Ottoman permit allowed him to erect scaffolding on the Acropolis, carry out excavations, and remove stones with inscriptions. But, by design or by cunning, he interpreted the Turkish concession liberally, and between 1801 and 1811 made off with almost all the bas-reliefs from the Parthenon's frieze, most of its pedimental structures, and a caryatid from the Erectheion. These he sold to the British Museum in London in 1816 for £35,000.
The English poet Byron was outraged by the vandalism, describing Elgin as "the last, the worst, dull spoiler" from Caledonia. The Greek poet Yannis Ritsos expressed the feelings of his nation when he wrote: "These stones cannot make do with less sky." The campaign to return the marbles gained momentum when Melina Mercouri became Culture Minister. "I believe the time has come for these marbles to return to the blue sky of Attica," she declared in 1982.
Now, a major television programme has revived the campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles. The Without Walls programme was hosted by William Stewart who argued for their return by 2001 - the 200th anniversary of Elgin's looting of the Acropolis. But he hedged his demand with three stipulations:
. The marbles should return only when the new Acropolis Museum is ready to receive them;
. All costs for their return should be met by Greece; and
. Greece should bear no claim for the return of any other artefacts held in Britain.
Commenting on the stipulations, President Stephanopoulos said: "These are very reasonable preconditions that every Greek would readily accept. There is no reason why we should not accept this five year agreement."
Over 100,000 viewers phoned in after the first screening of the programme: 99,340 or 92.5 per cent supported the return of the marbles, with only 7,518 expressing opposition. Now 33 Labour MPs have given their support to calls for the return of the marbles
,to Greece.
Stewart pointed out that he is decidedly "not in favour of every work of art or ancient artefact being returned to its country of origin." It was a point worth making at a time when the Turks are demanding the return of Priam's Treasure, currently on show in the Pushkin Museum, Moscow. The gold of Troy was excavated by Heinrich Schliemann and was smuggled out of Turkey to Athens in 1873.Greece has made no official claim to the collection, but would find sympathetic ears in Moscow, despite competition from Turkeys and Germany. Dr Yiannis Tzedakis and Prof Giorgios Korres of Athens University were invited to the exhibition's opening, when Dr Irina Antovana, director of the Pushkin Museum, reaffirmed a promise she made when Melina Mercouri died: "From the moment the legal problems are solved, Greece will be the first country to exhibit the treasures."
But whatever happens to Priam's Gold, Greek hopes for the return of the Parthenon Marbles have been boosted in the past few weeks. Melina Mercouri's husband, the French film producer Jules Dassis, believes the repatriation of the marbles "is now much easier than when Melina campaigned." He is heartened by the prospect of Labour winning the next British election: "If they return to power . . . then Greece has very good reason to hope."
Now the Prime Minister, Mr Simitis, is relaunching her campaign. "It is of major concern to Greece to secure the return of the `Elgin Marbles', especially now that 90 per cent of the British public appear to support the Greek case," he said. "It shows that the British people have a sensitivity and principles which their government must respect."