Temple of Olympian Zeus- Athens, Greece, Sixth Century BC- Second Century AD

       The temple was built on the site of an ancient outdoor sanctuary dedicated to Zeus. The tyrant Pisistratus built a temple for the god around 550 BC. Around 520 BC, the current temple began to be constructed and was completed under the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian in second century AD, about 640 years after the start. Pisistratus’s sons began the construction. The temple was intended to be built of local limestone in the Corinthian style. It was supposed to be a 134.5 foot by 353 foot platform. On the front side, there would be a double colonnade of eight columns, and on the sides, twenty one.  The project was abandoned approximately ten years after it began, when only the platform and some elements were completed. For 336 years, the site remained in this state. In 174 BC, the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV, resumed the construction of the Greek temple and put Decimus Cossutius, a Roman architect, in charge of the project. Under Cossutius, the design changed. The double colonnade in the front changed to a triple, and the twenty one columns on the sides changed to twenty totaling in 104 columns. Each column was to be seventeen meters high and two in diameter. The building material changed to Pentelic marble and the style changed to Doric; this was the first time the exterior of a major temple would be in the Doric style. Antiochus’s death in 164 BC halted the construction of the project at its midpoint. For the most part, in the following years it was damaged and neglected until Hadrian rose to power and resumed the construction. It was completed in second century AD.

Image: studyblue.com

     After he completed the construction, the temple was formally dedicated to Hadrian. The temple itself and the surrounding precinct were decorated with statues depicting Hadrian, the gods and personification of roman provinces.

     The temples era of glory was short lived- after the Herulian sack and invasion of Athens in 3^rd century AD, it fell to disuse. It is unclear if it was used in its damaged state but if it was used, it would have been formally closed in 425 AD by the Christian emperor Theodosius III when he prohibited worship of old Roman and Greek gods.

     Over the following centuries, the temple was used as a quarry for building materials needed for other projects.  By the end of the Byzantine period, it was almost totally destroyed.  Today, nothing remains of the cella and only fifteen of the original 104 columns stand with one more on the ground after being toppled in a storm in 1852. The site was excavated by Francis Penrose (British) in 1889-1896, by Gabriel Welter (German) in 1922 and by a team of Greek archaeologists in the 1960s.

     Over the years, different peoples called it by different names. During the Ottoman’s times, the locals called it the Palace of Hadrian. During Turkish rule, it was called the Palace of Belkis, due to a legend that it was a palace constructed for one of King Solomon’s wives.

Sources: 
1-  Watkin, David. A History of Western Architecture: Sixth ed. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1986. Print.
2- Martin, Roland. Greek Architecture: Electa Architecture, 2003. Print