Photographer: Silas
Olympia, Greece (not far from Pyrgos and Katakolo on the West coast of the Peloponnese while Athens is on the East coast)
Every athlete passed under this arch to emerge onto the field for the original Olympics which began two thousand or more years ago. When the field was restricted to men, they were said to compete naked, and were likely covered in olive oil, it was an ultimate form of hedonism but it was the greatest sports contest in the known world.
Given the human passion for sporting contests, this couldn't have been the only large-scale sporting event in history but it is the one which survived to the present time.
All that remains is in the ruins and also in the spirit of peaceful competition and I was surprised at the emotion I felt as I walked among the stones.
All these ancient stones seem littered at first but there's still a symmetry and the place reveals itself from behind all those millennia. I don't know what brought the rocks down but earthquake is my first guess since this area has seem some really hefty quakers. Pheia is the city around Katakolo which is now underwater because an earthquake in the 3rd or 4th Century. Perhaps the same one broke all these stones.
I found such a quiet beauty in them and the tiny flowers between them with the omnipresent olives rising over it all.
Zen Yogi: omnipresent?
Sure, mate, since I've not been exaggerating. They're everywhere.
There are clear patterns here and you could actually learn the function of this part since there were guide books for sale. Olympia is a government preserve and they offer the guide books and similar things you may find helpful. Like any other place you have seen like this, those sales help funding the upkeep and the staff to do it.
I did not buy a guide book since I did not want to get that science-y with it as my preference was much more to feel Olympia rather than study it ... and I did, much more than I had imagined. Ordinarily I don't much care for visiting places like this but I was stunned by Olympia. Coming here is the biggest reason all the cruise ships dock in Katakolo since the cruisers zoom off to Olympia practically the moment their feet hit dry land.
Perhaps your preference is to make the study to determine why these columns were here and why not do that when it makes the picture larger for you. My preference remains in beholding the magnificence now and what it must have been. The columns must have stood in the sunlight as today but the colors were pure and unblemished by the millennia in-between. People in their ancient togs from the multiple Greek city/states and from countries beyond must have walked casually between them. Sure that's a Hollywood costume movie but right here it's real.
And don't put this on a bucket list. Whenever something presents itself, go for it since we don't often go the same way again. There's probably something near you right now and you have said to yourself, yah, I should check that out sometime. There are bucket list items we pass all the time and they're all over the place, even in the Waynesville Sauerkraut Festival which proclaims the virtues of sauerkraut ... with ice cream. (Yes, that's true. Sauerkraut ice cream or sauerkraut pizza if you like)
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