Olympieion: Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athen, Greece. (2024)
Zeus is a Greek word that means God. The Olympian Zeus means a God who lives on top of the mountain Olympian. The Olympian mountain was considered as the tallest mountain in Greece. The temple of Olympian Zeus was built during the Roman era of Greece and today it is a popular sight-seeing place in Athens.
Athens in Greece was visited by Roman King Hadrian in 124–125 AD. He had built several monumental structures in Rome and across Europe. He decided to construct a magnificent temple of The Olympian Zeus in Athens. The construction was completed in 131 CE.
The construction of the temple of Olympian Zeus was one of the largest construction done in Greece during that time. The temple was built in an open area. The temple was built in a rectangular shape. The length of the Olympian Zeus temple was 361 feet and had 20 columns on each side that each column was evenly spread along the length. The width of the temple was 144 feet and has 8 columns on each side.
Each column was 56.6 feet tall and 5.6 feet wide. Each column had 20 flutes. The top of the columns was decorated with a decorative carving of marble known as Corinthian Capitals. The inner area of the temple known as “Cella” has a gigantic chryselephantine statue of Zeus and Hadrian. The marble statue was painted with gold known as chryselephantine statues.
King Hadrian who built the temple was given the same importance as God Olympian Zeus. Several columns were demolished during the wartime and section of some of the damaged columns were reused to build the adjacent column that was in better shape. In the present time, there are only 15 columns still standing.
