Olympia, Greece (Day 13)

We woke up this morning and headed down the hill to see Ancient Olympia, the place where the Olympic games first got their start. I was surprised at how big it was and how much stuff there was to see on site...

 Last night's dinner table.... Food is so good here... I've had lamb, rabbit, grape leaves, feta cheese, all sorts of good stuff... And most of the tables look all fancy like this one


Olympia Site

 Roman fountain

 Temple of Hera

 Original Olympic field

 Lining up for the race.... Jana, Lauren, Maria, Amy, Denise, and Naomi.... Originally women weren't allowed to participate or even watch the game.

 Cool archway leading to the field

 Nero's house he had built especially for while he attended the games...

 Temple of Zeus. This thing was HUGE!!! the pediments for the columns were taller than me...

 Huge hostel that would have held the officials during the games.

 Ionic style capital

 This building was converted into a Christian church

Museum 

 Model of the site reconstructed

 This would have been on top of the temple of Zeus in the gable of the temple... the guy in the middle is taller than me.

 Helmet worn by a leader at the battle of Marathon.

 This is a statue of Hermes by Praxiteles. Yes he's naked... and rather shiny...

 Soldier statue

 Corinthian style capital

 Emperor Hadrian

 Nike!!! the goddess of victory (pronounced "knee-kay")

 Cup of the famous sculptor Phideus who formed the enormous statue of Zeus that once stood in the temple but has since been lost to history...

Ancient Olympic Museum

 Kevina!!!!! ya dinkus!!!

 that's better....

 the museum had alot of replicas of things from other locations... it wasn't the best but was still pretty cool. these shields were typical of the time and were used in the games... they looked HEAVY

 Armor worn by the sword fighters... safety first ya'll