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April 2000

Elia

David Aaronson
2005-09-24 20:44:38

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like most of the ancient Greek stadiums with a long rectangular sand area and grassy slopes surrounding it for viewing. One difference at Olympia is that there is only one seat and that was reserved for the Priestess/Judge who presided over the games. This is the archway and tunnel which lead into the stadium (2).

The buildings at Olympia cater to the games. There are a variety of gymnasiums and practice rings for wrestling and track events. There are also quite a few bath houses. Each of the practice rings is surrounded by a columned walkway which led to various rooms, most prevalent were those where athletes would get olive oil massages while training. Olypic champions here returned to their home towns with considerable glory and automatically were accorded high rank for life. Olympia was also home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world - the truly awesome Temple of Zeus. This is one of the collapsed columns from it (3). Notice the size of the tree in comparison.

These columns stood over 12 meters (40 feet) high and inside the Doric temple was the seated statue of Zeus. Sculpted by Phidias (whose workshop nearby yielded among other things a cup with the words 'Phidias owns me' carved into it.), the statue was of ivory with Zeus' robe, crown and sceptre made out of gold. This is actually the only of the seven wonders located in mainland Greece. The temple was destroyed over the years by earthquakes, fires and floods. None of the columns are still standing although scaffolding was in place for the reconstruction of one while we were there. The statue was moved to Istanbul in the 4th century AD where it was later destroyed in a fire. The carvings which form the background of this page also survive from the temple.

From Olympia we drove to Pyrgos, the uninspiring capital of Elia and then along the Ionian coast to the city of Patra. Patra is the capital of Achaia and is the third largest city in Greece (after Athens and Thessalonika). From here, ferries leave to the rest of Greece, Italy and even Israel. The one we took was just right across the Gulf of Corinth to Andirio. A 15-minute car ferry, they tend to pack in the vehicles pretty tightly as you might notice from this picture (4). The window was the only option out of the car and luckily this flat bed truck was kind enough to be parked next to us.

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