Ancient Olympia Tours & Tickets

Olympia hosted the ancient Olympic Games continuously for nearly 12 centuries, from 776 BCE until Emperor Theodosius I banned them in 393 CE.

The statue of Zeus at Olympia, crafted by Phidias around 435 BCE, stood 40 feet tall and was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World—though it was destroyed in a fire in the 5th century CE.

The Olympic flame in modern games is still lit in Olympia before each Summer Olympics, continuing a tradition that dates back to ancient times.

Olympia sits in the verdant Ilia region of the Peloponnese, where the Alpheios and Kladeos rivers meet, making it a lush oasis rather than a dry archaeological site.

Ancient Olympic athletes competed completely naked—the Greek word 'gymnos' (naked) is the root of 'gymnasium'—and women were forbidden from watching under penalty of death.

The archaeological museum at Olympia houses the Hermes of Praxiteles, a masterpiece marble sculpture from the 4th century BCE considered one of the finest surviving Greek statues.