Athens - Olympieion 
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A temple to the supreme god of the Greek pantheon, who had previously been worshipped in the open air, was built by Peisistratos on this site of Olympieion at some time before 550 B.C. - 100 years before the erection of the temple of Zeus at Olympia. It measured 30 by 60m/100 by 200ft - rather smaller than the later Parthenon.
The site, to the southeast of the Acropolis, then lay outside the city.
The site, to the southeast of the Acropolis, then lay outside the city.
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Must-see attractions nearby:
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Work on this building, which was to have 8x21 columns, was suspended after the expulsion of Hippias in 510 B.C., and it lay unfinished for almost 350 years, until about 175 B.C., when the Syrian king Antiochos IV commissioned a Roman architect, Cossutius, to complete it.
The new temple was designed to have a double colonnade of 8x20 Corinthian columns, 17m/55ft high, of Pentelic marble; but this temple, too, remained unfinished, and it was not completed for another 300 years, until about A.D. 130, when Hadrian had it finished in accordance with Cossutius' plan. Its construction had thus taken 700 years altogether.
The Temple of Zeus is the most important monument of the Olympieion site.
Address:
Olympieion, Athéna , Greece
Hours:
April 1 to October 31: 8am-7:30pm
November 1 to March 31: 8am-5pm
Always closed on: New Year's Day (January 1), Greek National Day (March 25), May Day / Labor Day (May 1), Christmas - Christian (December 25), Day after Christmas, St Stephen's Day, Boxing Day (December 26), Easter - Christian
Tips: Admission is free on Sundays between November and March.
Transit: Bus: 024, 230 (Amalias); Trolleybus: 1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 12 (Olgas).
Read More
Hadrian's Arch built in 131 to 132 AD in Athens.
Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens.
Hadrian's Arch to Acropolis in Athens.
