To clear up all doubts, it is advisable to visit Olympia, the undisputed seat of the Olympic Games. If there is a place that has never been chosen by humans to host sporting disciplines, it is Olympia. In this location in the Peloponnese of Greece, the remains of the sports buildings built for the first Olympic Games in history are still visible today, dating back to 776 BC in honor of Zeus.
Olympia represented one of the most important and prestigious cities in the history of Greek civilization, rivaling Delphi. Today, a small village of just over a thousand inhabitants, it stands next to what was once the Olympic stadium which could hold about 45,000 spectators, nearly like modern football stadiums.
All around is a stunning landscape: gentle hills and lush forests. Anyone visiting the stadium today cannot avoid passing under the heroes’ gate. In Olympia, everything seems still. The columns supporting the sports structures have fallen (partly destroyed by humans and partly by time and events) and are left here abandoned because humans cannot and must not intervene in the sacred place of the gods.
