The complete guide to: Olympic travel - Independent Online Edition > News & Advice: "The world's first sporting arena was at Olympia in the Greek western Pelopponese. A five-day festival of chariot and horse-racing, long-jumping and foot-racing was held every four years from 776BC until the Games were abolished nearly 1,200 years later. Happily, a fair amount of ancient Olympia is still intact. Down the centuries, the site has been hit by two earthquakes and severe floods, and the site was almost consumed by forest fires that engulfed the region last August, claiming 63 lives. The field and the surrounding buildings and temples are now overlooked by a hillside of charred trees.
The flames came within a few metres of the rectangular field that was rediscovered only in the 19th century. Years of careful excavation have made sense of the tangle of fallen columns and stones, assisted by scale models in the adjacent museum. The temple of Zeus, three times the size of the Parthenon, has not survived but another, dedicated to Hera, has been almost wholly reconstructed, and its magnificent 4th-century BC statue of Hermes is on display in the museum. Other sights include a monument containing the heart of the founder of the modern Olympics, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, who died in 1937. Ancient Olympia (which reopened within two days of the fires) opens every day from 8.30am-3pm (November-March)"
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