Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sights
1
Panathenaic Stadium
HISTORIC BUILDING, ANCIENT SITE
The grand Panathenaic Stadium, which is known as the Kalimarmaron ('beautiful marble'),
was originally built in the 4th century BC for the Panathenaic athletic contests. It is said
that at Hadrian's inauguration in AD 120, a thousand wild animals were sacrificed here. In
AD 144 the 70,000 seats were rebuilt in Pentelic marble by Herodes Atticus. The first mod-
ern Olympic Games, in 1896, were held here and during the 2004 Olympics it made a stun-
ning backdrop to the archery competition and marathon finish. The annual Athens mara-
thon finishes here.
(Leoforos Vasileos Konstantinou, Pangrati; adult/child €3/1.50;
8am-7pm;
Akropoli)
Understand
Olympic History
The Olympic tradition emerged at the site of Olympia in the Peloponnese around the 11th century BC as a paean
to Zeus, in the form of contests, attended initially by notable men and women who assembled before the sanctuary
priests and swore to uphold solemn oaths. By the 8th century attendance had grown and the festival morphed into
a male-only major event lasting five days every four years. During the competition, city-states were bound by a
sacred truce to stop any fighting underway. The games ceased in AD 394 when Emperor Theodosius I banned
them.
Crowds of spectators lined the tracks, where competitors vied for an honourable (and at times dishonourable)
victory in athletics, chariot races, wrestling and boxing (no gloves, just simple leather straps). First prize was of-
ten a simple laurel wreath, but it was the esteem of the people that most mattered, for Greek Olympians were ven-
erated. Three millennia later, while the scale and scope of the games may have expanded considerably, the basic
format is essentially unchanged.
2
Athens' First Cemetery
CEMETERY
