Travel back in time to visit Olympia in 480 BC for the famous Greek games, and get tips on visiting the present day historic site.
Readers with the latest computational devices will know already that this is an Olympic year – to be precise, the year of the 75th Olympiad. So, come August, Olympia in Greece will be simply the place to be – and to be seen. And maybe even compete – so long as you are not a woman, of course! Don’t let a small thing like the impending Persian invasion put you off. It hasn’t deterred the organisers, who’ve been putting on the Games here in honour of Zeus of Mount Olympus for the past 296 years – well, every four years anyway. Zeus will provide! So, come one, come all – all Greeks, that is, wherever you happen to live in the Greek world, to this most truly all-and only-Greek extravaganza. It all happens in a remote backwater of the north-west Peloponnese.
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See
Some of you may have already visited Olympia off-season. To you I say that you are in for a big surprise. Some of the buildings are lovely, no doubt, any year, any time of year – the temple of Hera, for instance (but it so needs a temple to the patron god Zeus to go with it, don’t you think?), and there are lots of gorgeous statues to gaze at. But frankly there’s not a lot else to do – apart from consult Zeus’s oracle, say, or pay your pious respects to the host of other gods and heroes who have their shrines and altars here.
Getting around
When you get home – by mule-cart for some of you, on horseback for the lucky few, but for most on foot – you can worship the victors, literally, as superhuman heroes. That is even (or especially) if they’ve got themselves killed, in the all-in fighting or whatever. Errosthe (fare well)!
Visiting Olympia today
One of the most delightful of Greece’s ancient sites, Olympia is today a day trip from Athens. That it is a glorious one rather than a hot, underwhelming slog is to do with two things: the efforts locals and firefighters made in 2007 to save the site from bush fires, and the ruins themselves.
Persevere with Olympia: the modern town is little more than a service centre for the ancient, and first impressions will be of souvenir shops and uninspiring restaurants. There’s better and more typical Greek fare on offer in the village of Floka, a mile or so up the hill.
The star attraction is south of the new town, across the Kladeos river. Set in wonderfully quiet and green surroundings, the Olympic site can absorb half a day. There are four museums to complete the theme of the day: one devoted to the ancient games, another to the modern one, a third tells the story of excavations and a fourth, the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, shows off some of the best finds. There’s a joint ticket for this and the site itself.
Even if you only see ancient Olympia, it will almost certainly prove a highlight of any tour of Greece’s historical treasures.
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There are comparable sites in Greece – Delphi notably – which will awe and educate, but you need to go to Mexico to find evidence of lost civilisations enjoying sport on this scale, particularly the ball courts of Monte Alban and Chichen Itza.
By Paul Cartledge, info + foto from bbc.comtravel+Lonely Planet
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