Thank YOU! It's Customer Appreciation Week!
EXTRA 11% OFF Orders $100+ With Code: THANKYOU
EXTRA 11% OFF Orders $100+ With Code: THANKYOU
Cheers
Give a Cheer
Give a Cheer
In Greece, in what is referred to as the "Valley of Gods", lies the most celebrated sanctuary of ancient Greece, and the birthplace of the most important athletic mega-event of all times; the Olympic Games.
Olympia Greece hosted the ancient Greece Olympics every four years ("olympiad" is the Greek word meaning a period of four years) beginning in 776 B.C. and lasting for more than 900 years in this location before the tradition began to feature the games in different places as it is today. The games were not held again in Olympus until 1896, and they returned to Greece for the 2004 summer games held in Athens. The men's and women's shot put competition was held in Olympia for those competitions.
Olympus was not a town, but a sanctuary with buildings associated with games and the worship of the gods. Olympia was a national shrine of the Greeks and contained many treasures of Greek art such as temples, monuments, altars, theaters, statues and votive offerings of brass and marble. The Altis, or sacred precinct, enclosed a level space about 660 ft long by nearly 580 ft wide. In this were the chief centers of religious worship, the votive buildings and buildings associated with the administration of the games.
The votive buildings included a row of 12 treasure houses and the Philippeum, a circular Ionic building dedicated by Philip II, king of Macedonia, to himself. Outside the Altis (sacred precinct), to the east, were the Stadium and the Hippodrome where the contests took place; on the west were the Palaestra (or wrestling school), and the Gymnasium where all competitors were obliged to train for at least one month.
The most celebrated temple was the Temple of Zeus, dedicated to the father of the gods. Next to the Temple of Zeus ranked the Heraeum, dedicated to Hera, the wife of Zeus. In this temple, probably the oldest Doric building known, stood the table on which were placed the garlands prepared for the victors in the games.
An arched entrance separates the sacred and business sections from the stadium and field used for the games. It was amazing to walk under that arch and realize that this is the same arch the ancient athletes entered through as they ran onto the field to participate in the earliest Olympic games. (Spectators never entered under this arch, only the athletes and the officials.)
There are no words to describe what it feels like to stroll among the impressive ruins of the area where the ancient Olympians competed 3000 years ago and to walk under the arch to the field.
I am so glad we took this tour to Olympia! Bill didn't really want to go but that night I just smiled as he told other passengers on the ship how much he enjoyed it and how glad he was that he went!
No products have been added to this project.
Thanks for spreading positivity!
June 19, 2014
June 12, 2014
June 08, 2014
June 07, 2014
June 07, 2014
June 06, 2014
June 06, 2014