Our next land tour was to head for the original Olympic site. We were now the west side of the second largest of the land masses of Greece. Except for a narrow connection to the main land mass it would actually be an island. Olympia is about 200 mile as the crow flies west and a little south of Athens. If you were to go between Athens and Olympia by land you might very well go through Corinth. The tour of the day was to spend the morning in Olympia and the afternoon at the beach.
From the port heading east the land is more or less flat with foot hills rising in the distance.
Most of the level land was cultivated, either with grain crops orchards or vineyards.
We would be heading in the hills. The Olympic site was in a peaceful wooded valley and had been developed from ancient times as a place of athletic competition and a sanctuary.
The entry into the Olympic site slopes gradually down into a broad plain where most of the structures and facilities had been constructed. Ancient Olympia was never a town or community it was more like a camp or retreat center or as we heard it described as a sanctuary. Originally it was a place where the Greek "worshipped" the physic of young athletic bodies. Sort of like our modern football basketball soccer etc. with all its sports heroes and idols. Their sport stars did not make millions of dollars' however.
The history of the Olympic games has this site being used continuously from 778 B.C. until the 4th century A.D. The games were for Greek males only and could only be watched by males, apparently the competitors did not wear clothes. Originally the Olympics occurred as a time of peace or at least a truce between warring divisions of the Panhellnic culture. About a month before the games, heralds were sent out to declare the date of the games and to summon competitors and spectators to put down their weapons and come to this "holy site", (Olympia) and participate in this gathering. The reason this site was considered "holy" was because fairly early on there were temples to Zeus and other gods constructed and as in any pagan culture there were statues and idols to be worshipped. There were in addition to the games some artistic exhibits, speeches and plays. This was more of a festival time.
One story we were told was about a mother who was so proud of her son's athletic prowess that she decided to disguise herself as a male and sneak in to see the race. When her son won she got too excited and in her yelling she was "discovered". From then on even the spectators had to disrobe to confirm their gender. But, as we discovered almost everywhere we went in Greece, the Greeks are such liars, so its hard to believe much of anything they say.
By the 4th century A.D. the games had been somewhat corrupted. For example one particular Caesar had writing, and poetry (not exactly sports) added to the games and had himself declared the winner so he got lots of recognition. Note that the Grecian Empire by this time had been overtaken by the Roman Empire and even they were in decline. Christianity had become the State religion and the pagan hedonistic games fell out our popularity. The Goths sacked the site of much of what would be considered valuable in 395 A.D. By the 6th century A.D earth quakes had ruined most of the structures, and then the entire site was covered in Mud by catastrophic flooding events that followed.
The site was rediscovered in the late 1700s and in 1826 was excavated by the French. The first modern Olympics was started in 1896 and held in Athens.
Okay, back to the archaeological site as it is today. As we entered the grounds on our right was a large area that had originally been a gymnasium where the athletes trained. We would walk through an area on the far side of the gymnasium on our way out later in the morning. You can see in the photo below the short stubs of what was a double row of columns which was northwest side of the Gym. My guess is that the Gym was more of an open area (no roof) surrounded by this covered colonnade.
In these photos, which were taken to the left (north) of the entrance walk, are sections of building "blocks" that were at one time part of a column or building wall that were tumbled by earthquakes and later uncovered by the archaeological excavations.
Below is a the part of a building wall that remains. The tree on the left obviously was not there 2500 years ago.
One interesting story about the capital (top part of a column) is linked to the quality of photography of these pictures. We were told early on that we would not be allowed into the site with a backpack and since that is where I carry my better camera I decided to go the day with a small point and shoot camera (not as high quality). Once we were on site I enquired about the ban on backpacks, I asked if it was for fear someone would bring in a bomb or something like that. Nope, the ban on backpacks is because someone had stolen one of these capitals and apparently they thought that the culprit had sneaked it out in a back pack. That stone probably weighed 1000 pounds at least. I would hate to have tried to stop a guy who could have carried one of those out of the grounds in a backpack.
A few of the columns have been restored to upright conditions and there is a certain amount of restoration work that is being done, but for the most part things are pretty much like they were found when they were dug out of the mud.
The columns above are part of a monument to Philip II who was a son of Alexander the Great and was king of Macedon from 359-336 B.C. when he was assassinated.
Most of the temple of Zeus looks like the photo above. Below is one column that has been restored on its original location.
The photos above and below were on display boards at various places around the main buildings. Above is an aerial view, below a picture of a model of the Zeus Temple, along with details of the building.
The three columns above are of the Temple of Hera which is located to the west of the Temple of Zeus. To the right of the columns is a retaining wall with blocks in front. This was the Treasure House.
The material out of which most of the buildings were constructed was a very porous limestone. You can see the small shells in the stone in the photo below. I might be that being covered with mud for several hundred years which may have done more to preserve some of the ruins that we see today.
There were all sorts of features that would be needed to accommodate thousands of people, like fountains, baths, pools, housing, and most likely vendors supplying food and such.
Here we are in front of the terraced area where the treasury had been.
This hole in the ground was probably a bath or pool.
Above a base for a monument. Below the main entrance to the Stadium. There may have been and a continuous arched tunnel.
The block of stone were supposedly where statues of participants that had been caught cheating. Their presence was to humiliate the cheater and to and discourage cheating of those entering the stadium for the new competition.
Here we are heading through the entrance.
The Stadium was a fairly large area not unlike modern Stadiums. Modern Olympic tracks are 400 meter ovals. Short races (sprints) are run on the straight-a-ways. Distance races are run by multiple laps around the oval. The ancient track was actually only a straight-a-way The racers would line up along the stone curb looking thing that the guide in the photo below is showing us.
The racers would run to the far end a little under 200 meters. Runners would run one length for the shortest race which was 1 stade or one length of the stadium. Down and back would be 2 stades and so on. Actually the word Stadium is derived from that ancient activity.
In the photo above our official photographer, missing the start of the race took a shot of two competitors racing down the end of the stadium and nearing the turning point
In the photo below you can just pick out the two athletes in green shirt and burgundy are neck in neck
Here is the photo finish.
Above is a place holder for a short video clip of part of the race.
Post race photos were taken by the media.
After the competition of the 2 stade race I climbed up the slope at the south end of the stadium and took a few pictures.
I really enjoyed the being on this ancient track.
Below is a stone with carved laurel wreaths that decorated some part of a building. Perhaps it was where the real trophies were handed out.
Behind Clarice in the photo above are blocks of what had been the Echo Hall, a place where the winners names were proclaimed seven times.
several blocks had been reconstructed into a sub unit of what would have been a complete structure at one point or a base for a sculpture.
The marker above had lettering on it but it was all Greek to me.
The photo of the building above was illustrates what the temple of Zeus might have looked like. The building was 64 m X 27m or about 210' X 90' and was 65, tall at the ridge. Originally there was a 36' tall statue of Zeus inside the temple made of gold and ivory. The sculptor was Pheidias who had a workshop just south of the temple. There were other epic scenes of mythology that were displayed as well. The temple was built in about 470 B.C. and was plundered by the Goths and eventually destroyed by earthquakes in 522 and 551 A.D.
Above is an area where several statues depicting various athletes were displayed, The triangular shaped column below was originally 30' tall and had a 7, tall statue of "victory" a winged female figure.
These shots are from the other side (east) of the temple of Zeus. You can see the single column in the distance across the field of rubble.
Above is a picture of Jon with a column hat on his head. Below another base for a missing statue.
In the photo above are some remnants of a building that was a guest house for noble men. There is a hint at the original arches that would have been the entrances into the north wall of the building.
The rows of truncated columns (capitals stacked on the bases and the columns are missing) shows the size of the guest house.
The photo below has an aerial view and an artist sketch or model of what the building might have looked like.
These are pictures of part of the outer walls around the court yard of the workshop that Phedias the sculptor used. In the back ground are the walls of the workshop itself.
Here are some shots of the information board about the workshop. In the early 5th century the workshop was converted into a Christian Church (Basilica). It should be noted that at that time there was only one official Church. Later on there was a split of the church into Catholic and Greek Orthodox.
The photo below is a schematic layout of the Olympic site, north is up. The entrance is just to the right the long skinny rectangle top left. The larger rectangle on the right is the stadium (track). The spectators would have sat on the north and south side of the track on the slope lawn areas. The Guest House is the large square on the lower left corner. The workshop in just above the Guest House. The Palastra wrestling training center is just above the workshop, and the skinny rectangle is the east wall of the Gymnasium.
Above in a shot into the workshop/church. Below is an entrance that would allow access into the workshop/church.
These are shots inside the building.
These are columns that were part of the Palaestra wrestling center.
The trees that provide shade now most likely were not there but I can imagine this corridor when originally constructed with an overhead roof in place would have been a relatively cool place to be, except for all the wrestlers kicking up the dust.
Here is Karen looking for a wresting match. I told her I was not dress for wrestling at the time so we decided to just head out. Boy was that close.
From Olympia we headed off to another beach/swimming opportunity.
Moving away from the hills to the shore took us through more farm areas.
This beach had been billed as a pristine beach even better that the one at Mykonos but as it turned out the big storm that we had seen when we were leaving Athens really made a mess of the beach front and had the water really stirred up as well.
We were able to get some sun and shade and enjoyed being at the sea shore.
Many of the shade umbrellas had been wiped out, but we found a few that were still in tact.
We had Greek salad and bread for lunch right on the beach, which was nice.
At the end of the day we eventually had to leave. Some people took the news well others did not.
On the way back to the ship we passed by these interesting troughs. I assume they are to carry storm water or irrigation water. They went on for several miles along the road.
We did not see many trains while on land tours in Greece, but it appeared that they were light weight narrow gauge rail roads. The structure below was typical of many that we saw in various places in Greece. Apparently they are roughly the equivalent of the crosses that are often placed along the side of the roads in the US to mark the location of a fatal accident. Some of these got to be quite elaborate, and apparently are used by multiple people over time. I seems to me that it might be a good indicator to the highway department that this section of road might have some safety issues.
At the end of the day we headed back to the ship for dinner and to be transported to the next port. I really enjoyed the Olympic site and except for almost getting run over by a bus the day went very well.
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