Photos

The Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Hadrian's Arch as viewed from the "Holly Rock"

The Temple of the Olympian Zeus, also know as the Olympeion, is located on Amalias Avenue, about 500 meters (1640ft) south-east of the Acropolis and about 700 meters (2296 ft) south of Syntagma Square. Its foundations were laid on the site of an earlier temple by the tyrant Pisistratus in 515 BC but the work was abandoned when Pisistratus' son, Hippias, was overthrown in 510 BC.

The work was resumed in the 3rd century BC, during the period of Macedonian domination of Greece under the patronage of the Hellenistic king Antiochus IV of Syria who hired the Roman architect Cossutius to design the largest temple in the known world. When Antoichus died in 164 BC, the work was delayed again. In the 2nd century AD, the temple was taken up again by Hadrian, a great admirer of Greek culture, who finally brought it to completion in 129.

The Temple of Olympian Zeus was built of marble from Mount Pentelus and measured 96 (315ft) meters along its sides and 40 meters (131ft) along its eastern and western faces. It consisted of 104 Corinthian columns each 17 meters (55,7ft) high of which 48 stood in triple rows under the pediments and 56 in double rows at the sides. Only 15 of these columns remain standing today. A 16th column was blown down during a storm in 1852 and is still lying where it fell.

Hadrian dedicated the temple to Zeus (known to the Romans as Jupiter), the king of the gods. He erected a giant gold and ivory statue of Zeus in the cella and placed an equally large one of himself next to it. Nothing remains of these or anything else from the interior of the temple. It is not known when the building was destroyed but, like many large buildings in Greece, it was probably brought down by an earthquake during the mediaeval period, and the bulk of its ruins taken away for building materials.

....................................................

Hadrian's Arch

The triumphal arch lies on an ancient street that led from the old city of Athens to the new, Roman section, built by Hadrian. It was constructed by the Athenians in A.D. 131, in honor of their benefactor emperor. Two inscriptions are carved on the architrave, one on each side: the first, on the side towards the Acropolis reads "This is Athens, the ancient city of Theseus"; the second, on the other side, facing the new city reads "This is the city of Hadrian and not of Theseus".

The central arched opening of the monument is supported by pilasters crowned with Corinthian capitals. Similar, but taller pilasters flank the outer corners. The arch is crowned by a series of Corinthian columns and pilasters, with an Ionic architrave at the ends, and an entablature with a triangular pediment in the middle. The whole monument is made of Pentelic marble.