Continued south and arrived in Olympia mid-afternoon. Had the whole archaeological site to ourselves, except for the guards. Here's the sole column remaining from the Temple of Zeus.
The Palaestra was the wrestling gym. It had a courtyard surrounded by columns, many of which still remain on site. Today the word "palestra" means gym in Italian. Interesting that some of their language comes from Greek.
The Philippeion was a memorial to guess who, Philip, and his family.
In addition to the site, there is an archaeological museum. Apparently this area was inhabited in pre-historic times. This bronze griffin head, which once graced the top of a cauldron, is from the 6th or 7th century BC!
Same goes for ol' creepy eyes here.
They've arranged the pediment sculptures in the museum so that you can see how they were originally meant to be viewed. This scene depicts a battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths.
Back outside, we noticed a shrine like many shrines we saw along the roadside all around Greece. |  |
 | It includes some icons, matches, and wicks. See the little silver foot to the lower right of the candle? Someone with an injured foot came and prayed for their foot to heal. |
| This pretty shrub was nearby. Despite the fact that it's January, we saw a bunch of flowering plants. |  |
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