In September 1687 was the Acropolis sieged by Venetian troops. The Turkish commander ordered to tear down the Nike temple and to use the debris to construct a barrier in front of the Propylaea. In the night of 26 September 1687 a Venetian projectile hit the Parthenon, which was used as storage room for the Turkish explosives. With a tremendous bang a large part of the wonder of Phidias exploded. Because of this the Turkish surrendered and the Venetian troops started to loot the Acropolis systematically. Most of all they wanted to bring some statues back to their city, but luckily it never came that far as they had to retreat after a few months.

In the 18th century people started to develop a big interest for the ancient Greek civilisation. Those who wanted to collect things in Greece had to get a "firman", an official permit of the sultan. The French ambassador in Constantinopel, Choiseul-Gouffier had an agent in service, a certain Fauvel, who was collecting statues and other things for him.

Even more known than his French colleague was the English Lord Elgin. He had managed to get his hands on a firman that said that he got permission to erect scaffolds against the buildings of the Acropolis to do scientifically research. It also said that he was allowed to retrieve small pieces with figures of the buildings. Between 1800 and 1803 he collected 12 statues, 15 metops and 56 fragments of the great frieze of the Parthenon, a caryatid, a Ionic column of the Erechteum and fragments of the frieze of the Nike temple and shipped them to England.

Restorations of the Acropolis.

Greek interest for her own past only started to grow after the war for indepence. Right after the liberation people suggested to change the Erechteum into a museum. After the arrival of the German prince Otto, who was going to be the king of Greece, German troops were placed on the Acropolis. The famous architect Carl Friedrich Schinkel made a plan to turn the Acropolis into a huge royal palace in the romantic-classistic style. Luckily other architects managed to persuade the king to rebuild the Acropolis the way it was centuries ago. But first all Turkish constructions had to be removed. While removing the heap of debris in front of the Propylaea they found the remains of the Nike temple again. With great care this temple was reconstructed as good as possible on its original place. Greek, French and German archaeologists had a lot of work in the 19th century with removing all non-classical buildings, renovating the classic ones and building a museum on top of the Acropolis. After a lot of discussion the medieval French tower on top of the Propylaea was also removed.

The current state of the Acropolis was achieved during the comprehensive excavations between 1882 and 1933. The first years were used to explore the plateau systematically.

When Athens got hit by an earthquake in 1894, the Acropolis also got damaged. The Greek engineer Balanos was ordered to save the Acropolis. He used quite drastic means and construction materials in an attempt to restore the buildings as much as possible in their old glory. With ancient stones, concrete and iron he recreated the buildings. In time this only gave more problems, especially the iron which started to rust.