Mike's review
Visited 2019The Temple of Olympian Zeus is less intact than the Acropolis sites, but the scale is the point. The columns are huge, and the long history of the project, started in the 6th century BCE and completed under Hadrian, makes it feel like Athens and Rome are talking through one structure.
I liked it as a quick but worthwhile open-air stop. It pairs well with Hadrian's Arch and a walk toward Syntagma or the National Garden.
From the source
The Temple of Olympian Zeus stands in an open field southeast of the Acropolis. Fifteen Corinthian columns remain upright and a sixteenth lies where it fell during a storm in 1852. The surviving columns are 16.89 meters high, enough to show the scale of a temple that once had 104 columns around a cella of Pentelic marble.
The Peisistratid rulers began construction around 515 BCE, but the project stalled for centuries. Roman emperor Hadrian completed it in 131-132 CE as part of his expansion of Athens. The long construction history explains why an Archaic project took its final form as an enormous Roman Corinthian temple. The Olympieion is a separate ticketed site near Hadrian's Arch, with little shade across the exposed grounds.
Supporting source: Legacy import provenance
Plan your visit
Hours
Apr-Aug daily 08:00-20:00; September closing shifts from 19:30 to 19:00; October from 18:30 to 18:00; Nov-Mar daily 08:00-15:00.
Admission
- Admission
- €20
Features & amenities
What to expect
- Sun-exposed
- Outdoor
Good to know
- Photos allowed
- Easy
Tags
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Planning Athens
The rest of my Athens saves, on the city's planning pages.