Olympia Archaeological Site

The birthplace of the Olympic Games -- held without interruption from 776 BC to 393 AD, a continuous run of 1,169 years, before being abolished by Christian Emperor Theodosius I -- contains the ruins of the Temple of Zeus, which housed the Statue of Zeus (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), and the 192-metre Olympic stadium still used for the Olympic torch lighting ceremony every four years. Pierre de Coubertin revived the Games in 1896 specifically because of the Olympia site, which he had visited in 1875.