April 27, 2025 - Greece
Ancient Olympics Site

Passing an ubiquitous olive tree grove as we walked from the Ancient Olympics Museum to the Sanctuary of Olympia.

"Then, as now, olives were vital to Greece, providing food, preservatives, fuel, perfumes ... and lubrication for athletes."  ... Rick Steves
   
The entrance to the Sanctuary of Olympia.
   

Aerial view of the Sanctuary of Olympia.

"Olympia was the mecca of ancient Greek religion -- the location of its greatest sanctuary and one of its most important places of worship.  In those times, people didn't live here: The sanctuary was set aside as a monastery and pilgrimage site; the nearest city was 30 miles away.  Ancient Greeks came here only every four years, during the religious festival that featured the Olympic Games.  The heart of the sanctuary was a sacred enclosure called the Altis -- a walled-off, rectangular area that housed two big temples, multiple altars, and statues to the gods.  Whereas Delphi served as a pilgrimage destination mostly for groups of wealthy men on a particular mission, every four years Olympia drew 40,000 ordinary men (no women) for a Panhellenic party: the Olympic Games."  ... Rick Steves

This center of ancient Greek religion dedicated to Zeus hosted the Olympic Games for more than a thousand years (776 BC-AD393).
 
   
We enter the Sanctuary and walk south along the Sacred Way.  On our right is what's left of the Gymnasium, the largest guilding in the sanctuary, built in the 4th century BC.
 
The truncated Doric columns once supported a covered arcade, one of four arcades that surrounded a big rectangular courtyard, where athletes trained.  The courtyard (about the size of six football fields, side-by-side along the Sacred Way) matched the length of the Olympic Stadium, so athletes could practice in a space akin to the one in which they would compete.  Athletes arrived a month early for the Games in order to practice.  ... Rick Steves
   
Looking east at Kronos Hill, which dominates the sanctuary.
   
A good look at the Sacred Way.
   
More ruins looking towaqrds Knossos Hill.
   
The Palaestra on the west side of the Sacred Way.  Built around 300 BC, this was the "wrestling school", used by athletes to train for wrestling, boxing, long jump, and pankration, a kind of ancient "ultimate fighting" with only two rules: no biting and no eye-gouging."
Palaestrae, found in almost every city, were also a kind of health club where men hung out and passed the time.
   
 
   
 
   
Checking out a Greek dog sleeping in the sun on the dirt.
   

ZZZ
   

This building currently under renovation is the workshop of the great sculptor Pheidias (490-430 BC).  Pheidias created here the 40-foot statue of Zeus that once stood in the Temple of Zeus across the street.  Previously Pheidias had created the Athena Parthenos for the Parthenon in Athens.   The workshop was built with the same dimensions as the temple's cella (inner room) so that Pheidias could create the statue with the setting in mind.

Archaeologists found sculptors' tools and molds for pouring metals, as well as a cup with Pheidias' name on it.
   
All that is left the massive Leonidaion, a luxury, four - star hotel -- boasting 145 rooms, private baths, and a central pool -- built in the fourth century BC to house dignitaries and famous athletes during the games.  -- Rick Steves
   
Our first look at the Temple of Zeus, Olympia's main sight, marked by a single standing column.
   
 
   
 
   
"The center of ancient Olympia was the massive temple dedicated to Zeus, king of the gods and patron of the Games.  It was the first of the golden age temples and one of the biggest (not much smaller than the Paqrthenon).
 
The temple was built in the fifth century BC (470 - 544 BC), stood for a thousand years, and then crumbled into the evocative ruin we see today, still lying where it fell in the sixth century AD.
 
   
"The lone standing column is actually a reconstruction of  original pieces, cleaned and restacked.  It's 34 feet tall, 7 feet thick, and weighs 9 tons.  This was one of 34 massive Doric columns that surrounded the temple:  6 on each end and 13 along the sides.
   
"The rubble field is strewn with big grey blocks, two-ton column drumbs, and fallen 12-ton capitals.  They're made not of marble but of cheaper local limestone.  You can see seashell fossils in this porous (and not terribly durable) sedimentary rock.  Most of the temple was made of limestone, then covered with a marble-powder stucco to make it glisten aas brightly as if it were made of pure marble.
   
"On this side of the temple are five huge fallen columns, with their drums lined up in a row like dominos."
   
Looking south of the Temple of Zeus, at "the ruins of the Bouleuterion, the council chamber where, by stepping on castrated bulls' balls, athletes took an oath not to cheat."
   
"At the front (east) end of the temple is this 29-foot-tall, white-marble, triangular Pedestal of Nike.  On its top once stood a famous statue -- now in the archeological museum -- of the goddess Nike, the personification of victory."
   
Looking at the front, east, end of the Temple of Zeus.
 
"Here, on these steps leading into the temple was the Winner's Circle, where Olympic victors were announced and crowned.  As thousands gathered in the courtyard below, priests called the name of the winner, who scaled the steps to the cheers of the crowd.  The winner was crowned with a wreath of olive (not laurel) branches, awarded a statue in his honor -- and nothing mroe.  There were no awards for second and third place and no gold, silver, or bronze medals  -- those are inventions of the modern Olumpics.  However, winners were usually showered with gifts and perks from thei rproud hometowns:  free food for life, tax exemptions, theater tickets, naming rights for gymnasiums, statues, pictures on ancient Wheaties boxes, and so on."  -- Rick Steves
 
Inside the temple was the Pheidias' magnificent Statue of Zeus.
   
"This marble column was built in 270 BC to honor Egyptian King Ptolemy II, the son of one of Alexander the great's generals.  The column reaches its original height and stands in front of the ruins of Echo Hall, a long gallery where winners were announced as if into a microphone -- the sound echoed seven times."
   
You enter the stadium through the Krypti tunnel.  "Built around 300 BC, this tunnel once had a vaulted ceiling; along the walls are niches that functioned as equipment lockers.  Just like today's NFL players, Olympia's athletes psyched themselves up for the big contest by shouting as they ran through this tunnel, then emerging into the stadium to the roar of the crowd."
   
Entering the stadium.
   
P35
   
Lynnette and Jenny line up on the original marble-paved starting line!
   
Here we go!
   
The stadium, built in the 5th century BC would be filled with 45,000 spectators who sat on the grassy banks.
   
There were no seats except those for the judges who sat in the box shown here.
 
Today, this is where the Olympic flame is passed on to the first torchbearer of the upcoming Olympic Games.
   

The stadium track is 640 feet, a little over three football fields, from start to finish line.

"The first games featured just one event, a sprint race over one length of the stadium.  Over time, more events were added.  At the height of the games (400 BC) there were 13 events held over five days, most here in the stdium.  Besides footraces, there was discus, javelin, boxing, wrestling, long jump and the pentathlon.  During the 2004 Olympic Games in "Athens, the shot-put competition was held in this stadium." ... Rick Steves
   
Kronos Hill was sacred to the ancient Greeks, who believed it to be the birthplace of Zeus.
   
Looking at some of the 16 pedestals that once held bronze statues of Zeus.  The Zeus statues that once lined thi spath were paid for with fines levied on cheaters, whose names and ill deeds were inscribed in the bases.  Offenses ranged from doping (using forbidden herbs) or bribing opponents, to railing to train in advance of the Games or quitting out of cowardice.  Drinking animal blood -- the Red Bull of the day -- was forbidden.  Official urgine tasters tested for this ancient equivalent of steroids."  ... Rick Steves
   
All that is left of the Metroon, a temple dedicated to the mother of the gods, Rhea (also known as Cybele).  The site also honored the mother-goddess of the earth, worshipped as Baia.
 
Somewhere near here once stood the Altar of Zeus -- nothing remains today.  At this altar the ancient Olympians sacrificed animals to Zeus.
   
Placard for the Metroon.
 
The placards were excellent here at the Sanctuary of Olympia.
   
Foundation of a 3,000-year-old house -- 2150-2000 BC -- more than 1,000 years older than the ancient ruins.  They determined it was that old because of artifacts they found here.
   
In this area was the Nymphaion, a monumental fountain.
   
Placard for the Nymphaion.
   

What's left of the Temple of Hera.

"First built in 650 BC, this is the oldest structure on the site and one of Greece's first monumental temples.  The temple originally honored both Hera and her husband Zeus, before the Temple of Zeus was built.
   
The Temple of Hera from another direction.
   
 
   
Placard from the Temple of Hera.
   
"The Philippeion, the construction of which marked a new era in Greece: the Hellenistic era.  Philip of Macedon built this monument to mark his triumph over the Greeks around 340 BC, thus uniting the country -- by force -- while bringing its Classical Age to an end.
 
The temple originally had 18 Ionic columns of limestone and marble stucco.  Inside stood statues of Philip and his family, including his son, the man who would bring Greece to its next phase of glory:  Alexander the Great."  ... Rick Steves
 
   
I bet Alexander the Great once stood here and gazed upon this monument to his father, the same as we are doing now. 
 
   
ZZZ
   
 
   
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