Juego

In ancient Greece the Olympic games were held in honour of Zeus, King of the Gods. The games were part of a great five day festival held every four years at Olympia, a valley near a city called Elis.

It was an opportunity for individual cities to get together and people came in large numbers from all over the Greek world.

At Olympia today you can still see remains of some of the buildings. Roll your mouse over the photo to see how he may have looked.

Each of the cities of ancient Greece had its own government, and there were often wars between them. Messengers sent out from Elis announced a sacred truce of one month before the festival began.

The truce meant that people could travel to Olympia in safety. The Olympic games were more important than wars because they were a religious festival.

The earliest Olympic Games were held in about 776BC. In those days the only event was a short sprint, from one end of the stadium to the other. Gradually over the years more were added until there were four days of many different competitions. The running track was much wider than a modern one. Twenty people could run at once.