Olympia - Site

The road from the village of Olympia crosses the Kladeos on a modern bridge and comes to the large parking lot. Entering the site, we see on the left the Prytaneion, in which the victors were entertained with a banquet, and on the right the Gymnasion, with a propylon at the southeast corner (second century B.C.; only east end preserved), and the Palaistra (third century B.C.), the columns of which have been re-erected.

Beyond this, on a site originally occupied by fifth century baths, is the Workshop of Pheidias, which was later converted into a church. In this workshop, which was exactly the same size as the naos of the temple of Zeus, Pheidias created (438 B.C. onwards) the huge chryselephantine cult statue of Zeus. Continuing south, we come to the Leonidaion, at the south- west corner of the excavated area. Originally built by Leonidas of Naxos in the second half of the fourth century B.C. as a large hostel for the accommodation of visitors to the sanctuary, this was altered in Roman times to a new layout in which the living quarters were set round an inner court with a garden and fountains and surrounded externally by Ionic colonnades. To the east are the Southern Baths (A.D. second century), the South Stoa (fourth century B.C.) and the Bouleuterion with its two apses (sixth-fifth century B.C.). All these buildings lie outside the walls of the Altis.