A Walk Through the Site of the First Olympic Games

 

A Walk Through of the Site of the First Olympic Games

Our next port of call was in Olympia, Greece, and we toured the site of the first Olympic Games – Ancient Olympia.  The Olympic Games were held here every 4 years from 8^th century BC to 4^th century BC.  It was almost surreal to walk over the grounds where the ancient Olympians competed – let’s get started!

The first site we saw is still being explored by archeologists.  It was the gymnasium of the ancient games.  This is where athletes could train for various competitions.  Only men were allowed to compete.  Per our guide, one time a woman dressed as a man competed and apparently did quite well.  However, it was then discovered that she was a woman.  In order to keep women from competing in what was considered a man’s sport, from that point on, the competitions were held in the nude!

These scenes are from the Palestra.  Basically, these were the wrestling ground, where wrestling was taught and performed for training purposes, in essence a wrestling school.  Below is another view of the Palestra, from inside the pillars that surrounded it.

Here are a couple of views of what remains of the Priests House.  There were actually several structures like this throughout ancient Olympia, and would be where the priests, administration, guests and athletes would stay during the Games.

The images above and below are from the Temple of Zeus.  It was built to honor the chief of the gods.  It was most likely constructed around 470 BC, when the ancient Games were at their peak.  The pillar at the left in the above image is a reconstructed pillar showing the height and structure of all the pillars that were once there.  On the right in the above image, is the base of another pillar of the Temple that was uncovered during the archeological dig of this area.  The images below show the side (upper) and front entrance (bottom) of the Temple.  You can see some of the other pillars that have been excavated, but not fully reconstructed.  The reconstruction work in this area was carried out in the early 2000’s.

In April 2017, this, the northern column of the Votive Monument of Ptolemy, was inaugurated.  During the turbulent times after the death of Alexander the Great, the Ptolemaic dynasty sponsored the building of this structure to honor the statues of Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his wife, Arsinoe.  The statues are not in this area (probably moved to a museum in modern Olympia), but this column of the Votive Monument remains here.

Just outside the entrance to the stadium there are rows on either side of the path.  On one side are statues of the champions of the Ancient Games, and on the others, are statues of the cheaters – those found to have cheated during the Games!  In this image, you can see a stand for both types of statues, and in the center is an image of the footprints of one of the statues.  Again, the actual statues are in a museum in modern Olympia.

Here is the stadium!  It doesn’t look at all like our modern stadiums, but you can certainly see where the design of our modern stadiums came from.  On the left in the image, there is an arch that signifies the beginning of the entrance to the stadium.  The image on the right is one of us walking into the stadium – it reminded me of those images we see on TV of football teams entering their stadium.  In the center, you can see the stadium.  It’s very bare bones, and there are no seats for the spectators – they simply sat on the grass!! 

The last couple of areas we saw on our tour of this wonderful piece of history were Hera’s Temple and Hera’s Alter.  Hera’s Temple (the two lower images) is the oldest temple in this area.  Originally, the stone columns were made of wood.  In Roman times, a statue of Hermes was situated in the Temple.  Hera’s Altar (center image) was located off to the right of the Temple.  This is where the lighting of the Olympic Flame took place.  I’m sure it looked much more impressive back in the day!!

What a lovely moonrise we had as we left Olympia and headed to our next to the last port of call. 

Enjoy!