Ancient Olympia

4. Ancient Olympia 

There are many archaeological sites throughout the Peloponnese, it is possibly the richest historical region in all of Greece, and consequently it can be difficult to choose which sites to visit.  It's thrilling to stumble upon a ruin or a site that we've never heard of, but there were also a few well-known archaeological sites that we had definitely planned to explore, and Ancient Olympia was one of them.  An easy two and a half hour drive north of Kardamyli, in a green valley, is the Sanctuary of Ancient Olympia. It's called a sanctuary because primarily it was the place of worship dedicated to Zeus, the Greek god of the sky - the father of all gods. It is also the birthplace of the Olympic Games which were held here every four years from 776BC to 393AD.  The Games began as a way to honour the gods, and of course have changed just a little over the years; back in the BC and early AD days participating athletes had to be Greek, male and had to compete nude!

It is a vast site, mostly ruins, pedestals, columns - some still standing and many lying as they fell - and remains of buildings all scattered among shady olive trees. The sacred part of the site is where there are the remains of the Temple of Zeus and the Temple of Hera.  We walked along the length of the gymnasium and to the Palestra, the wrestling school where dozens of Doric column still stand, and to Pheidias's workshop where one of the seven wonders of the ancient world was created - the monumental 13m gold and ivory statue of Zeus that once stood in the centre of the Temple.

There are also two museums within the site.  We visited the Archaeological Museum of Olympia that houses the best preserved artefacts and statues from the entire site of Ancient Olympia.  A museum was first built at Ancient Olympia in the late 1800s and at that time it was the very first Greek museum outside Athens.  The new museum is a modern low white marble building with large, cool galleries containing the most impressive collections of ancient sculptures and bronze and terracotta artefacts.

We loved visiting Ancient Olympia, we went in the afternoon and there were very people.  Wandering through the remains of where the Olympic movement began and still continues to this day was amazing.

We chose not to run our own 100m race at the original Olympic stadium - it was 42° that summer afternoon we visited Ancient Olympia!

Wandering around the ancient stones

The Temple of Zeus

The pedestals that once held the 
ancient statues

Incredible classical Greek sculptures
that were once the pediments of the 
Temple of Zeus and now line both
sides of the Museum's vast main gallery.
Utterly spectacular.

Nike of Paeonios
The winged goddess of victory 
~425 BC

42° in the shade but we loved it!