Olympia, Greece

Tim Ratigan

Period 6A-B

Global History I

Mr. Raboy
 Location: Greece, Europe

Size of Greece: 130,800 km2

Geographical Features: Mt. Olympus,

Santorini volcano, Pindhos
mountains, Rhodope mountains,
multiple island chains; the climate is
temperate with wet, mild winters
and arid, hot summers

Population of Olympia: 11,069

Olympia was first settled

approximately 3000 BCE. By the ninth century BCE, Olympia was already a popular site,
evidenced by bronze offerings from all over Greece. According to popular legend, the Olympic
Games started 776 BCE as a peace offering between Sparta and Elis, but they may have been
even earlier than that. Because of the peace offering, many could go to Olympia without
weaponry and it became a major center for political discussion. Eventually, every city-state
became a part of the Olympic Games and the Games’ duration was expanded from one to five
days. A temple for Zeus was erected with a gold and ivory statue of Zeus that was 13.5 meters
tall, with Nike, the goddess of victory, in his palm. The games lost their importance in the
second century BCE when the Romans conquered Greece and were banned in AD 426 by the
Christian emperor Theodosius, and many buildings had been taken down to defend against
possible invaders. Later in that century, the statue of Zeus was lost. In the 6 th century,
earthquakes ravaged Olympia and did further damage to the site.

The rules and punishments of the games and the rewards for victors, which both could be
extreme, are quite interesting. For example, women could not watch the games. If a woman
was caught attending the games, they would be thrown off Mount Typaeon. If a competitor
was caught cheating in the games, they had to pay for a statue that would be built with their
name on it and the statue would be put in front of the stadium. Champions, though not paid
for victory, would often be given free meals by his home town for the rest of his life. The town
would also supposedly tear down its wall as they found it unnecessary with such a citizen.
 Transport
a ti o n a n d
Price Carriers Stop-overs time/date Time of Airport Destination Class
Accomoda of arrival
departure
$857 ti Delta,
o n s 1 on On first First flight: JFK Airport Athens, Economy
Alitalia return flight: 4:20 9:30 a.m., Greece
p.m, Return:
12/4/10, 8:10 a.m.,
on return: 3:50 p.m.
6:55 a.m.,
12/18/10,
Connect:
11:40 a.m.
$860 KLM Dutch 1 on first On first First Flight: JFK Airport Athens, Economy
Airlines, flight, 1 on flight: 11:20 Greece
Delta, return 10:10 a.m.,
Alitali p.m., connect:
12/4/10, 12:20
connect: a.m.,
8:05 p.m. Return:
12/5/10 8:10 a.m.,
on return: 3:50 p.m.
6:55 a.m.,
12/18/10,
Connect:
11:40 a.m.

Hotels:

 Best Western Europa Hotel: €60 per night for a single room, €80 for a double, €99 for a triple
room, and €112 for a family room. Includes wi-fi, television, radio, hairdryer, refrigerator,
telephone, air-conditioning, marble restrooms,
balcony, and safe in each room. Amenities
include an on-site restaurant, free breakfasts,
children’s activities, a tennis court, an outdoor
pool, a jewelry shop, laundry, and free parking.
 Olympion Asty Hotel: €73 per night for a single room, €83 for a double,
€110 for a triple room, and €124 for a
family room. Air-conditioning, wi-fi,
heating, bath and shower, minibar, safe, telephone, music,
television, and veranda included with a room. Amenities
include playground, outdoor pool, free parking,
restaurant and bar.
 TOURIS
Museum of the T
The Historical The Temple of
Zeus
The
Archaeological
Castle of
Chlemoutsi
The Stadium

Olympic Games Museum of

ATTRAC
in Antiquity Olympia

This is a beautiful This used to have This is located on Only an hour This stadium

TIONS
museum off the
main road that
was made in
an enormous
statue of Zeus
made of bronze
the site of the
ancient
Olympics, and it
away from
ancient Olympia
by car, this is
held most of the
events of the
ancient Olympic
2004 and and ivory within is most probably the games with room
includes many it, but the statue renowned for its best preserved for 20,000
artifacts from was lost in the collection of Frankish castle in spectators, and
Ancient Olympia 400s AD and the sculptures, all of people could
that reveals temple crumbled although it has Peloponnese, view the games
Olympia’s former due to an the largest with amazing from the slopes
wealth and glory earthquake in collection of views of the of Mount
the 6th century bronze artifacts Ionian sea Kronos.
AD, but the site in the world.
is still there with
the remains of
the once glorious
temple
 Activitie
s
Attractions: Olympia is 15 to 25 km away from the beach. Sports can be played at the ancient
Stadium, the site of the original Olympics.

Restaurants: the top two rated restaurants in Olympia are Aegean and O Thea. Aegean serves
home-made Greek food with a special unique twist on each dish. O Thea is a restaurant up the
hill in a small village called Floka that serves traditional taverna and has wonderful food off the
grill.