Corinth Canal

We will pick you up from Athens. The Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The Isthmus was known in the ancient world as the landmark separating the Peloponnese from mainland Greece. Since 1893 the Canal has run through the 6.3 km (3.9 mi) wide isthmus, effectively making the Peloponnese an island.

20 minutes

Archaeological Site of Olympia

We will travel from Corinth to Olympia. The Archaeological Site of Olympia, located in the region of Ilia and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, owes its fame to two things; the Temple of Zeus, the home of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, and the Ancient Stadium of Olympia, the birth place of the world’s biggest celebration of sport and athleticism, the Olympic Games. The history of the site goes as far back as 1500 AD, with the first Olympic Games taking place in the 8th century AD and the Temple of Zeus being constructed in the 5th century AD, which is believed to be the Golden Age of Ancient Olympia.

2 hours

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The stadium of Olympia, situated east of the sacred Altis enclosure, was where the ancient Olympic Games and the Heraia, the women's games in honour of Hera, were held. Before the sixth century BC the running events were held on a flat area along the treasuries' terrace, east of the great altar of Zeus. The early German excavations first investigated the race track, but the recent German excavations of 1952-1966 uncovered the entire monument. In 2004, the ancient stadium of Olympia will re-live its former glory, since it will host the shot put event of the Athens Olympic Games.

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The Temple of Zeus was built on an already ancient religious site at Olympia. The temple was of peripteral form with a frontal pronaos, mirrored by a similar arrangement at the back of the building, the opisthodomos. The building sat on a crepidoma of three unequal steps, the exterior columns were positioned in a six by thirteen arrangement, two rows of seven columns divided the cella (inner chamber) into three aisles. An echo of the temple's original appearance can be seen in the Second Temple of Hera at Paestum, which closely followed its form.

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The temple of Hera, one of the oldest monumental temples in Greece, stands in the north-west corner of the sacred precinct of the Altis, on the south slopes of Kronios hill, protected by a powerful terrace wall. It was dedicated to the Olympian sanctuary by the inhabitants of Skillous, an ancient city of Eleia. The temple, which has a characteristic squat appearance owing to its great length in proportion to its breadth and its low height, is orientated east-west. It was a Doric peripteral hexastyle with sixteen columns at the sides. The original wooden columns were gradually replaced by stone ones, which belong to every period from the Archaic to Roman times, and display the full development of the Doric style.

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The majestic nymphaeum built in the 2nd century AD. This is a ornamental fountain which collected the waters of a big aqueduct originating in the nearby mountains, consisting of a rectangular basin and a larger semicircular one, the curved wall of which contained evenly spaced columns and niches containing statues of members of the Roman Imperial Antonine dynasty and of the family of Herodes Atticus.

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The palaestra at Olympia is part of the gymnasium at the sanctuary. This sixty-six meter square building dates to the end of the third or beginning of the second century BC. It is centered around a large courtyard covered with sand for use as a boxing or wrestling surface. Along all four sides of the palaestra are rooms that opened onto the porticoes.

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The Philippeion is the only circular structure in the Altis, as well as one of the finest examples of monumental architecture in Ancient Greece. Built at a premium location within the sacred enclosure, it was aptly dedicated by Philip to Zeus, and completed after his death (336 BC) by his son Alexander. The latter, in his effort to establish a cult of the deified royal family of Macedon, commissioned the famous sculptor Leochares to create five chryselephantine statues to be placed inside the monument.

Archaeological Museum of Olympia

Archaeological museum of Olympia is one of the most important museums of Greece. The exhibits present the long and fascinating history of the most famous sanctuary of antiquity, the pan-Hellenic sanctuary of Zeus, father of gods and men as the ancient Greeks believed, where the Olympic Games were born.

1 hour

Museum of the Olympic Games

The Ancient Olympic Games Museum, or as it is formally known, the Museum of the History of Olympic Games of Antiquity, is one of the oldest museums in provincial Greece, as it has been in operation since the late 19th century, only a few years after the first excavations at the Archaeological Site of Olympia had begun. It houses a variety of exhibits that exemplify the history as the culture that developed in the area across the centuries as well as artifacts from other hubs of cultural importance in Greece.

40 minutes

Olympia

The modern-day village of Olympia, despite its rather small population of about 1000 people, is one of the seven municipalities of Ilia. Apart from the nearby archaeological site, it is a great example of natural beauty found throughout the Peloponnesian region, as it built right by the foot of the local mountain with the Alpheios River running through it.

1 hour