Great Journey 🏍 Day 66
Olympia! The venue of the ancient Olympic Games
Another place we know from reports only full of crowds. And us? Almost alone. There are maybe 8 vehicles in the car park.
And it's getting warm. Midday heat. We take off our motorbike gear, tie everything to the bike and are now sporty (with trainers, of course, for the Olympics!) and ready for the tour.
And we are very grateful that there are signs everywhere (even in German!). Because if we had walked along here without signs, we would only have noticed a few piles of stones. So we learn that this one pile of stones must once have been a temple. And where there are 3 white marble stripes on the ground (branding?) was (is) the stadium for the 192.24 m run. We stroll on through the beautiful and absolutely empty complex, see the altar of Hera, at which the Olympic fire is lit. Oh, and here is another feature of brand naming: Nike, the goddess of victory, has been given a place here.
The Temple of Zeus, the dominant building there, is impressive and easily recognisable even for us archaeology buffs.
We are moved by this place, touched by its beauty and tranquillity and thrilled that there are people who undertake such excavations in painstaking Sisyphean labour.
#olympia #ancientolympia #ancientgreece
