Syracuse - Temple of Zeus

Immediately south of the Anapo and Ciane Rivers, which join just before they flow into the sea, is the site of this Temple of Zeus. Take the SS 115 Ragusa road as far as the bridge over the rivers and then climb up the narrow road on the right to a small hill. Here can be seen all that remains of the temple, the foundations on which two columns have been re-erected. This, too, is a place away from the normal tourist route and in romantic surroundings.

The Temple of Zeus of Olympia was built c. 560 B.C., 10 years after the Temple of Apollo in Syracuse, to which it is similar in some ways. It too has six monolithic columns 8m/26ft tall at each end and 17 along the sides, colored terracotta cladding on the geison (cornice), a double portico and deep in the long cella an adyton accessible only to the priest. Records state that in 480 B.C. Gelo, following his victory over the Carthaginians at the battle of Himera, as well as endowing the Temple to Athena (now the Cathedral) in the city also gave a golden cloak as a thanksgiving gift to Zeus in Olympieion. It is said that to make it required an incredible 85 talents of gold (one talent equaled 26.196kg/57.33lb) - by comparison, 40 talents was sufficient to make the Statue of Athena by Phidias in the Parthenon at Athens. However, the golden cloak did not last long as a gift to the gods - Dionysios I seized it for himself about 400 B.C. and replaced it with a cloak of wool.