PANATHENAIC STADIUM, Panathenaic Stadium

Hi, my name’s Rick, and I’m your personal guide. Along with MyWoWo, I’d like to welcome you to one of the Wonders of the World: the Panathenaic Stadium, or stadium of all Athenians.

In Ancient times, this natural basin was used for the horse races of the famous Panathenaic Games, also illustrated on the pediment of the Parthenon.

In 330 BC, the statesman Lykourgos had a 260-meter-long granite stadium built here, with stone benches around the 204-meter-long course.

This length of approximately 200 meters corresponded to an ancient Greek measurement, the Stadium, which since then has lent its name to sports fields.

Almost 500 years later, in around 144 AD, the stadium was rebuilt in marble by Herodes Atticus, a Roman consul of Athenian origin, with a capacity of 50,000, thus acquiring its alternative name of Kallimarmaron, meaning “beautiful marble” in Greek. It is the only sports stadium in the world made entirely of marble....