The ancient Olympics were held in honor of Zeus, king of the Greek gods. By the mid-second century B.C.E., the Roman Empire had taken control of Greece, including Olympia.

The graphic shows the ancient hippodrome, a U-shape stadium structure used for hosting chariot races in Ancient Olympics. It is believed that the terraces could accommodate more than 30,000 spectators ...

The Olympic Games began over 2,700 years ago in Olympia, in south west Greece. Every four years , around 50,000 people came from all over the Greek world to watch and take part. Image caption, ...

Ancient Greece originated the Olympic Games. The Paris Olympics website outlines a bit of the history: The history of the Games goes back around 3,000 years, to the Peloponnese in Ancient Greece.

The Olympic flame-lighting ceremony has roots in ancient Greece and connects modern Olympic Games to their origin. The flame for the Paris games was lit on April 16, 2024.

The ancient Olympic games were held in Olympia from 776 BC through 393 AD and the first modern Olympics began in Athens in 1896.

Footraces—depicted on this vase by artist Euphiletos Painter—were among the earliest known events in the ancient Greek Olympics. But they likely weren't quite as long as the modern marathon ...

In 776 B.C.E., spectators gathered in Olympia, Greece, to watch a simple footrace. Thus began the ancient Olympics, the classical sporting competition that continued for more than a millennium ...