Sitting on top of the Acropolis, the Parthenon is one of the most dazzling buildings from antiquity. Yet it seems for 2,000 years we have been getting its name wrong.

Dutch scholars claim that the term “Parthenon” – popularised in the Roman period – originally belonged to an entirely different building.

The real Parthenon was in fact an ancient Greek treasury that contained offerings to the goddess Athena, claims research by Utrecht University.

Known as the Erechtheion today, it is about 100 yards from the main temple on the Acropolis, the massive rocky escarpment that rises from central Athens. Rather than being known as the Parthenon, the big temple should be known by its original ancient Greek name, Hekatompedon.

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“That means ‘the 100ft temple’ and the main room of the big temple was indeed exactly 100ft long,” said Janric van Rookhuijzen, the archaeologist behind the research. (© Daily Telegraph, London)

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