Ancient Olympia

We travelled to Olympia crossing the Gulf of Corinth on an amazing bridge (toll 15 euros). Once we left the freeway at Patra, we were on some very local winding roads to Olympia and thought things couldn't get worse! Ha ha!
We visited the museum and archeological site late in the afternoon and were blessed that so few visitors were present. The museum had some amazing artifacts from the site including the Pediments from the Temple of Zeus which although fragmented, showed the fine work of the sculptures. There was also a beautiful sculpture of Nike entitled Victory (minus her wings and most of her head) who originally sat atop a pedestal 36 feet tall. This is where the Olympic winners were crowned.
The actual Olympic site was a lovely tranquil park with the remaining ruins scattered throughout. And of course, the Olympic stadium which had a capacity of 45,000 men. During the Athens 2004 Olympic games, the Shotput event was held in the stadium as a nod to the origins of the modern day Olympics.
We also visited the ancient Olympic games museum which gave an insight to the whole process of the games training, the evolution of the events through the 1000 years that the Olympic's were held and the equipment used.もっと詳しく