Travel to Greece: Theaters and the Temple of Olympian Zeus: Photo 6

The temple, begun in about 520 B.C., had a platform measuring 134 by 353 feet. It was to be wrapped in a double colonnade on the unusual formula of 7 by 21 columns. Work stopped in 510, however, and was not resumed until 300 years later, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes hired a Roman architect, Decimus Cossutius. Work resumed in 174 on a revised plan with then-stylish Corinthian columns in triple rows, all in marble instead of the limestone originally planned. Work was again halted in 164 at the death of Antiochus, and some of the columns were shipped to Rome. Work resumed for the last time in the 2nd century A.D., and the emperor Hadrian came for the temple's grand opening.

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