Olympia: Time-Travel to Ancient Glory!

If you are a Greek Mythology geek like me head over to Olympia ASAP! If you’re not, then, please, be my guest and read this review. I promise I will try not to tell you everything so you hopefully have something to learn there. Before I get started I'm just going to say: this trip was incredible and totally worth it. So to start there is a pass which I recommend that will permit you to visit the History of the Olympics museum (don’t miss the statue of Zeus in the main room), the Olympia Archeological Museum, and the old Olympic ruins site. 

The history of the Olympic Museum is wonderful. It has signs in English and the people there are very nice [I saw a tourist in a camp half-blood shirt - Percy Jackson all the way, sorry I'll continue]. In the back corner, there is an amazing tile mosaic, there is pottery on the left side of the museum (most of it is from Corinth I think), and statues from the Roman period on the right. In the middle of the museum is a large room and the stuff in it is amazing. There is a huge shield, war helmets, statues of gods, and of course, at the front, a statue of Zeus. Even though parts of it are missing it still kind of emits power. It's incredible. 

Next, we visited the archeological museum. If the Olympic history museum was interesting, this museum was fascinating. The first few rooms were quite dull (how many farm animal statues did those Greeks make?) until you got to the other statues. There is (what I have been told) a replica (I have also been told it's the actual pieces) of the statue of Nike (goddess of victory). There is a picture of what the statue of Zeus would have looked like (one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and is now broken after an earthquake), as well as part of the roof of Hera’s temple (did you know her temple is older than Zeus’s temple?) which is amazing. There is more pottery (I dare you to figure out what the pictures on the pottery are without looking at the sign, I myself did pretty well), as well as a statue (not too broken actually) of Apollo carrying a baby Dionysus.

OK everybody, get on your phone, connect to the free wi-fi, and download the app on the sign, here’s where it gets interesting. There’s an app that lets you explore 3D online recreations of the buildings. I recommend going and running the original running track. Warning: halfway down the track on the grass on the right side is not a bunch of rocks but an altar of Demeter. If you see a medium-sized hill that is Kronos’s hill. There are also temples of Rhea and Gaia there. You can find a shrine to Pelops. The prince who originally started the Olympic games in honor of Zeus after winning his wife in a chariot race. 

I hope you get to go to Olympia and explore this incredible place.

Archaeological Museum of Olympia:

https://ancientolympiamuseum.com/

Museum of the History of the Olympic Games:

https://ancientolympicsmuseum.com/?page_id=1285&lang=en-gb

Olympia, Greece:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympia,_Greece

-- Sage Sedivec