An ancient Greek temple at Olympia, Greece, notably the Temple of Zeus was constructed in the second quarter of the fifth century BC and served as the prototype for a completely developed Doric Order (Simple Circular Capitals at the Top of Columns) of classical Greek temples. At Olympia, the Temple of Zeus was constructed on top of a much older holy site. In the tenth and ninth century BC, known as the Dark Age of Greece, when the devotees of Zeus and Hera had merged hands that the Altis (Archaia Olympia), an enclosure containing a holy grove, open-air altars, and the Tumulus of Pelops (king of Pisa in the Peloponnesus region according to Greek Mythology), was first constructed. The temple had a frontal pronaos (porch), which was mirrored by an identical arrangement at the back of the structure, the opisthodomos (rear room or inner shrine of Greek Temples). The temple had a peripteral form. The outside columns were arranged in a six by thirteen configuration, and two rows of seven columns separated the cella (inner chamber) into three aisles. The structure was supported by a crepidoma (platform) of three uneven steps. The Second Temple of Hera in Paestum, which closely mimicked the original design of the Temple of Zeus, can be considered as a reminder of it. The primary structure was made of a low-quality, lackluster local limestone, so to match the sculptural embellishment, a thin layer of stucco was applied to make it look like marble. Tiles made of Pentelic marble, that were so thin that they were translucent enough, used to cover the roof. This was done so that each of the 1,000 tiles would have let in light equivalent enough to a regular 20-watt bulb. 39 of the 102 lion-headed waterspouts or gargoyles that protruded from the edge of the roof still exist today. The temple stood 68 feet tall up to the pediment, 95 feet wide, and 230 feet long when Pausanias visited the location in the second century A.D. A ramp on the east side led up to it. [Info and Image Credit: Temple_of_Zeus,_Olympia, Wikipedia] [Image: Illustration of the Temple of Zeus as it might have looked in the fifth century BC by Wilhelm Lübke (Original Image Colorized by an AI Image Colorizer)][Original Image Availed Under Public Domain Work of Art (Please Relate to Individual Image URLs for More Usage Property)][Original Source Image URL :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Olympia-ZeusTempelRestoration.jpg ]
Old World
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