The Parthenon, which has existed for 2500 years, just may be the largest jigsaw puzzle ever created. Despite the fact that all its columns look perfectly straight, as does the floor, and just about ever other piece of marble in the building, none of it is. Thus, the massive restoration project currently underway at the top of the Acropolis in Greece is an incredibly slow and painstaking one.
Nova's latest episode, "Secrets of the Parthenon," uses the restoration project as a stepping stone to discuss the original construction of the building and the Athenian way of life 25 centuries ago. It is an at times fascinating look into an ancient culture that has greatly influenced our society to this day.
The Parthenon itself was built during Athens' "Golden Age," and despite its immense size and weight (many of the marble pieces weigh several tons) it took less than 10 years to construct (historians are unsure whether it was 8 or 9). From that time to this, the Parthenon has managed, at least in part, to stay standing despite being burned, pillaged, rocked by earthquakes, exploded, and suffering a restoration almost 100 years ago that may have done more damage than anything else. 
The documentary spends a significant amount of time discussing how all marble pieces used in the Parthenon construction (and there are thousands) can only be put together in one way for it to be correct. Though many of the pieces appear interchangeable, they are not. The differences may be minute, but they are there and purposeful.
Due to the nature of the human eye and the way our minds work, the eye can be tricked (drawing a 3D image on a flat piece of paper is a good example of this). In order for the Parthenon to look as though all the lines were straight, the angles 90 degrees, and the columns perfectly formed, the Athenians had to make sure they were not. They had to bow out the columns, have the floor be raised slightly higher in the center, and perform a variety of other subtle tricks to make the eye believe that what it was seeing was perfect.
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1 - Josh Lasser
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