Katakolon and Ancient Olympia

Today we docked at Kataklon, Greece, the port entry for Ancient Olympia. Kataklon is a small fishing village with a population of only 500. The city, along with Olympia, is in Peloponnese (the southern part of mainland Greece) on the western coast of the Ionian Sea.

After a 30-minute bus ride, we arrived at the site Ancient Olympia, home of the original Olympic Games. It is a rather large archaeological site. Chariot races can be tracked back to 1000 B.C. while the reorganization of the games occurred in 776 B.C. with the addition of the 200-meter foot race and the decree that the games will be held every four years. Below is a picture of the Temple of Zeus. The Games were held in his honor. The temple is Doric-style and had 32 columns surrounding the temple. The all tumbled when an earthquake hit the region in 6^th c. A.D. Inside the temple once stood the Statue of Zeus, a 50-foot gold-ivory statue that is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was taken to Constantinople in the 4^th c. and did not survive.

This next picture is of the entrance/exit gate of the Olympic Stadium. It was the only way into and out of the stadium for athletes, judges and spectators. The tunnel was 32 feet long originally.

Here is the layout of the stadium. There were no seats at this point, spectators stood around on the grassy inclines while judges were in the box seen on the right. The white line across the middle of the picture is the white marble finish line of the foot race.

Here I am hanging out in Palestra. This building is located next to the gymnasium and like it was used for athlete training, specifically for wrestling and boxing. Funny side note, the Greek word from which we get ‘gymnastics’ actually means exercising totally naked. I wouldn’t advice trying that at Gold’s Gym.