Olympia - Archaeological Museum

Olympia was the sanctuary of Zeus in the northwest of the Peloponnese. It was the site of the ancient Olympic Games.

The modern town of Archaia Olympia is located on the outskirts of the ancient sanctuary.

The excavation site is vast and complex. The ancient author Pausanias mentions about seventy temples, some of which have been reconstructed. Much of what the archaeologists have found is on display at the Archaeological Museum.



The Temple of Zeus was the dominant structure in the Olympic sanctuary and was built between approximately 480 - 456 BC. Measuring about 64 meters long, 28 meters wide, and 20 meters high, the temple is an important structures of early Classical architecture. It was the largest temple in the Peloponnese and, at the time of its construction, the largest temple in mainland Greece.

The reconstructed West Pediment

At its center is the 3.15-meter-tall Apollo of Olympia. The subject of the depiction is the battle of the Lapiths, with the support of Theseus and Peirithous, against the Centaurs, who, drunken with wine, disrupted the wedding of Peirithous with the Lapith woman Hippodamia or Deidameia.

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