Olympia

Olympia had two big temples.

The oldest was built more than 2,600 years ago. The biggest had tall stone columns all around. Inside it stood a giant statue made of gold and ivory.

The first large building at Olympia was the Temple of Hera, built around 650 to 600 BCE. In the 400s BCE, the much bigger Temple of Zeus was built, designed by an architect named Libon of Elis and finished in 457 BCE.

The Temple of Zeus measured about 64 meters long and 28 meters wide, with columns more than 10 meters tall. Inside stood a giant statue made of gold and ivory by the sculptor Pheidias, about 12 meters high and counted as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The statue is long gone, but archaeologists have found Pheidias's workshop at Olympia.

The World History Encyclopedia names the Heraion, built about 650 to 600 BCE, as the first large building at the sanctuary. The Temple of Zeus, a Doric temple of 6 by 13 columns designed by Libon of Elis and completed in 457 BCE (UNESCO gives 470 to 457), measured 64.12 by 27.68 m with columns 10.53 m tall, the largest temple in Greece at the time. UNESCO calls it the model for the great Doric temples of the Peloponnese, southern Italy and Sicily in the 5th century BCE.

Its gold-and-ivory statue by Pheidias, about 12 m high, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and is now lost; surviving masterpieces include the temple's pedimental sculptures and metopes and the Nike of Paionios (about 420 BCE). Excavators found Pheidias's workshop beneath the remains of a Byzantine church, evidence of the site's long use.

Olympia has a long, straight running track called a stadium.

People sat on sloping banks to watch. There were also big buildings where athletes trained, and a long track for horse races.

The stadium was a long, straight track with sloping banks where the crowds watched; as many as 40,000 spectators came to the Games. The oldest race, the stadion, was one length of the track, about 192 meters. Horse and chariot races took place in the hippodrome, a track 780 meters long.

Athletes trained in the palaestra, a square open courtyard for training, and in the gymnasium. Visitors stayed in a large guesthouse, the Leonidaion. Greek cities also built small treasury buildings to hold their gifts. And around 338 BCE, King Philip II of Macedonia built the Philippeion, a round building ringed by columns.

The World History Encyclopedia lists the sanctuary's later building program: baths and a swimming pool (5th century BCE), a new stadium with spectator embankments (mid-4th century BCE), a palaestra (3rd century BCE), a gymnasium (2nd century BCE), a hippodrome 780 m long and the Leonidaion guesthouse (330 BCE). UNESCO adds the Bouleuterion for the administration, the Prytaneion and a row of treasuries at the foot of Kronion Hill, and considers the Roman-period palaestra the model described by Vitruvius.

About 338 BCE Philip II of Macedonia erected the Philippeion, a circular colonnaded building that held gold statues of his royal family. Britannica records that German archaeologists completed the excavation of the stadium in 1960 and restored it in 1961.

At first, the Games had just one race, a sprint.

Later, there was wrestling, boxing, jumping and chariot races. Winners did not get medals. They got a crown of olive leaves!

At the first recorded Games, in 776 BCE, there was only one event: the stadion foot race. The winner was a man named Koroibos of Elis. Over time, longer races, wrestling, boxing, chariot racing, discus, javelin, jumping and the pentathlon were added. At their biggest, the Games had 18 events over five days.

Winners received a crown of olive leaves. During a three-month truce, athletes came to Olympia from all over the Greek world. There were also separate races for girls and young women, called the Heraia.

The World History Encyclopedia records Koroibos of Elis as winner of the single event of 776 BCE, the stadion; victors were recorded thereafter, giving an early chronology of the Greek world. The program grew to include longer races, wrestling, boxing, chariot racing, discus, javelin, jumping and the pentathlon, reaching 18 events over five days, though the stadion remained the most prestigious.

UNESCO describes athletes from all the Greek cities of the Mediterranean meeting under a three-month truce to compete for a symbolic olive wreath. Separate footraces for girls and young women, the Heraia, were run over about 160 m of the track, with olive crowns as prizes. The Eleans organized both festivals and maintained the site.

About 200 years ago, archaeologists began to dig at Olympia.

They found temples, statues and the old running track. Today, visitors can walk through the ruins and even stand on the ancient track.

The first excavations, in 1829, were made by a French team around the Temple of Zeus. From 1875 to 1881, German archaeologists uncovered the whole sanctuary and revealed, for the first time, the plan of a great Greek sanctuary. Work on the stadium was finished in 1960.

Today a museum at Olympia, opened in its present building in 1982, displays the finds. In 2007, wildfires burned a large part of the surrounding region, but UNESCO reports that the ancient monuments were not harmed and the landscape has recovered. UNESCO links the modern Olympic Games, revived in 1896, to Olympia's ideal of peaceful competition.

Britannica dates the first excavations to 1829, when the French Expedition Scientifique de Moree under Abel Blouet cleared the Temple of Zeus enough to reveal its plan and found fragments of three metopes, now in the Louvre. The German excavations of 1875 to 1881 under Ernst Curtius cleared the whole Altis, revealing the plan of a great Greek sanctuary for the first time. Work resumed in 1936, paused in 1942, restarted in 1952 and finished the stadium in 1960; the German Archaeological Institute and the local Ephorate of Antiquities continued the research, and the Archaeological Museum opened in its present building in 1982.

UNESCO notes that the fires of 2007 burned much of the Peloponnese around the sanctuary, but the monuments were unaffected and the setting was restored. It links Pierre de Coubertin's revival of the Games in 1896 to Olympia's ideal of peaceful competition.