Olympia, Religious

This site is probably most famous for the original Olympics (776 BCE they say), but it was first and foremost a religious site. I'm told that there were as many as 70 temples here at one time.
The 1st known human activity dates at at least the 4th millennium BCE, but the activity we might associate with ancient Greece began about the 10th century BCE. The oldest monumental building here is the Temple of Hera, dating to the 7th century BCE. In the 1st picture,. The altar of Hera is in the foreground. It is here that the ceremony of lighting the Olympic torch takes place to start it's journey to light the flame at the games every other year. In the background is the temple itself.
The 2nd picture is of the temple of Zeus. The one standing column is a reconstruction. I wish I could give a sense of scale. The column is more than 20 meters tall. It is here the famous 13 meter tall statue of Zeus, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, stood. The 3rd picture is of some of the ruins of columns next to the temple. They are more than 2 meters in diameter. Again, I hope this helps with scale. See also the post for the archaeology museum. The pediments have been reconstructed there.
The remaining 3 pictures are of more ruins. There is just so much here that I simply don't remember which is which.Read more