In prehistoric times the area around the temple (Olympieion) was sacred and dedicated to Zeus and other deities. There was a sanctuary of Olympian Gaia (mother Earth), a temple of Kronos and Rhea, and an old sanctuary of Zeus. It is situated 1400 MC (636 m) SW of the center of the Parthenon near the banks of the river Ilissos. The enclosure, built with poros stones, is 206 x 129 meters. According to Pausanias (A' 18), there was an old tradition that after the Cataclysm (* 9600 BC) the waters from the flood had disappeared there in a gap about a cubit wide. Then Deucalion built the old sanctuary for Zeus.
In historical times, the tyrant of Athens Peisistratos built a new temple between 560 and 540 BC. Later, when he died, his sons Hippias and Hipparchos, demolished it and started the construction of a colossal temple around 520 BC. However, the project was abandoned a few years leter when the tyranny was overthrown by the Athenians in 510 BC. In 174 BC, the Seleucid king of Syria Antiochos IV the Epiphanes - who thought that he was Zeus - continued the work with new designs by the Roman architect Cosssutius. Again, the construction stopped in 164 BC after Antiochos death. Finally the temple was completed by the Roman emperor Hadrian in 132 AD. Inside the temple (in Sekos) there was a colossal, chryselephantine statue of Zeus and a statue of Hadrian.
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