Temple of Olympian Zeus

The colossal unfinished temple at the centre of Athens's ancient archaeological zone

The massive ruined temple south of the Acropolis was the largest in Greece and one of the greatest in the ancient world, occupying a site that had been considered sacred for centuries before the first column was raised. The 15 remaining columns, their capitals still carrying their heavy stone beams, give a sense of the original scale — each column stands 17 metres high, and the temple originally had 104 of them.

The site is part of Athens's broad southern archaeological zone, which runs from here back through the Panathenaic Stadium to the Acropolis and beyond. Hadrian's Arch, the ornamental gateway Hadrian built in 131 AD to mark the boundary between the old Greek city and his new Roman extension, stands just outside the site entrance and frames a view of the temple behind it.

The combined Acropolis ticket covers entry.

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A story
The Temple of Olympian Zeus was begun by the Athenian tyrant Peisistratos around 520 BC and was still unfinished 650 years later when the Roman Emperor Hadrian finally completed it in 131 AD. Intended to be the largest temple in the ancient world, it originally had 104 Corinthian columns 17 metres tall. Only 15 remain standing — a 16th was blown down in a storm in 1852 and still lies where it fell, its drums scattered on the ground like a toppled spine.

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