The Temple Of Olympian Zeus Bashny.Net

Construction began in the 6th century BC during the reign of the tyrant Peisistratos, and was completed during the reign of the Roman Emperor Hadrian. He also dedicated the temple to Zeus. The temple is located near the arch of Hadrian built in order to separate the old city (the city of Theseus) from the new (city of Hadrian).


The temple was built of marble from mount Pantelous. Its length is up at 96 metres, and its East and West facades is 40 meters. It was monumental and really impressive temple of the king of the gods Zeus. He had 104 17-meter Corinthian columns, but only 15 of them remained standing to the present day,the 16th, the column fell to the ground during a storm in 1852, and lies there still. Most likely, the temple was destroyed in the middle ages, earthquakes, and disassembled for building materials. But even these remnants are impressive in its massiveness.


Set very close to each other, these huge marble columns seem to be some fantastic forest. They huddled, leaving tall, culminate in magnificent capitals, the amazing subtlety of execution.


The temple of Zeus was designed in the Corinthian style, the type of temple – dipter with two rads columns on the front and sides with three rows of 8 columns on the facades. Inside the temple there was a statue of Zeus, which was made of gold and ivory, and beside her is another statue, depicting the Emperor Hadrian. It was a humongous temple, one of the largest temples of the ancient world. It is no accident Titus Libyan said that the Temple of Zeus in Athens is the only temple on earth, whose dimensions are comparable with the greatness of Zeus.


Today, the temple, along with the surrounding ruins of other ancient structures, is a historic landmark, protected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Greece.



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