Olympia A nyone who has experienced a wild winter storm in the Alpheios valley and seen the sky resplendent with blinding lightning, or who has deen startled by a sudden mighty thunderclap on a stifling summer's day, will have no reason to doubt that this isolated part of the western Peloponnese is indeed the most important Sanctuary of Zeus, wielder of thunderbolts and father of the Gods.
Klaus Herrmann
"Olympia. The sanctuary and the contests"
Mind and Body, Athens 1989
O ne of the most important sanctuaries of antiquity, dedicated to the father of the gods Olympian Zeus. Olympia is the birth-place of the Olympic Games and also where they were held.
The area, of great natural beauty, has been inhabited uninterruptedly since the 3rd millenium B.C. and in the late Mycenaean period it became a religious centre. T he excavations at Olympia were begun in May 1829, two years after the battle of Navarino, by French archaeologists.
The finds (metopes from the opisthodomus and parts of the metopes from the pronaos of the Temple of Zeus) were transferred to the Louvre where they are still being exhibited. When the Greek government was informed of the looting of artifacts, the excavation was stopped.
Excavations started again 45 years later by German archaeologists. The research is being continued to this day by the German Institute of Archaeology in Athens, and the Ephorate of Antiquities in Olympia. | |
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