Today brought us to the remains of one of the most important cities in Ancient Greece: Olympia. Ancient Olympia was a complex of temples, priest's dwellings and public buildings. It was also the venue of the Olympic Games, happening every 4 years. During these games, the different city-states that took part were under a truce to respect each other, and stop warring. Indeed, even the Persians were invited! Everybody competed in races and sports. The origin of this city dates back to Minoan times, where the great goddess, identified with Rea, was worshipped here already in the first millennium, BC. By the classical era of Greece the goddess had been superceded by her son Zeus and in the eleventh century BC a small regional festival was introduced in the city. The first official Olympic Games were held in 776BC, and became so important, that they had reached the height of their prestige in 576BC. These games were always held in honor of Zeus, and went on till Roman times, but their importance had declined already, being held for the last time in 394AD, having been banned by the Emperor Theodosius II as a campaign against paganism. Here we saw the base of the enormous temple to Zeus, where his gargantuan statue of ivory and gold, made by Pheidias, sat. We also saw the incredible museum with most of the material recovered during the excavations of the site.