Eventually, gunpowder the Turks had stored in the Parthenon ignited, blowing out 28 columns, damaging several internal rooms, and killing up to 300 people. In the ensuing century and a half ...

I believe that the refinements were made to give the Parthenon an impression of being a living mass that responded to its own weight. For example, each column has a slight swelling at its center ...

Parthenon sculpture ... Around all four sides of the building, above the columns and easily seen by everybody approaching, was a series of 92 square relief carvings, known as metopes.