Archaeological Site of Olympia
Sanctuary of Zeus and home of the ancient Olympic Games, with temples, workshops and the stadium.
Olympia lies in a wooded valley of the western Peloponnese where the rivers Alpheios and Kladeos meet. A sanctuary of Zeus grew here from about the 10th century BC and, by tradition from 776 BC, it staged the Olympic Games, a four-yearly festival that drew competitors from across the Greek world until the Roman emperors suppressed it late in the 4th century AD. The walled precinct, the Altis, was crowded with altars, treasuries and hundreds of bronze victory statues.
Its principal building is the Doric Temple of Zeus, completed about 456 BC to designs by Libon of Elis, which housed the gold-and-ivory statue of the god by Pheidias, counted among the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Nearby stand the older Temple of Hera, the circular Philippeion, the palaestra and the workshop where Pheidias worked. German archaeologists began systematic excavation in 1875, and the site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1989.
Highlights
- Temple of Zeus, once home to Pheidias's lost gold-and-ivory statue
- The stadium with its stone start line and 192-metre track
- Temple of Hera, where the modern Olympic flame is lit
- Palaestra, gymnasium and the workshop of Pheidias
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