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The majestic Statue of Zeus at the sanctuary of Olympia holds its place as the fourth wonder of the Ancient World despite its complete destruction in the fifth century AD and once you read more you’ll understand why!

The Statue of Zeus, king of all Greek gods, was planned and built by sculptor Phidias inside the Temple of Olympia, a shrine in honour of Zeus, where the famous Olympic Games took place every four years. It took Phidias twelve years, from 430 to 442, to actually finish the statue and he spent most of his time planning in his workshop located inside the Temple of Olympia. In the 1950s his workshop was discovered by Archaeologists who were even able to identify a few of the tools Phidias had used to sculpt the statue! The statue itself is truly of staggering dimensions: at 42ft tall (so tall that his head almost reached the ceiling!) and 22ft wide Zeus who was made with a wooden frame covered in bits of ivory and gold along with carving of other gods and mythical creatures sat on a large regal throne. In his right hand Zeus held a slightly smaller but still life-size statue of Nike, goddess of victory, and in his left hand an eagle-headed sceptre. Two lions supported the pedestal at his feet and in front of the stature was a large pool filled with olive oil which was rubbed on the ivory to prevent it from cracking due to humidity. According the accounts of one Greek traveller, Pausanias, Phidias pleaded Zeus to give him a sign to show whether he liked the statue or not and soon after the temple was struck by lightning that miraculously caused no damage. Some weren’t as pleased with the statue which should have represented Zeus in his own home, the temple, yet if Zeus were to stand up his head would have gone through the roof of the temple! Others nonetheless believe this only added grandness and majestic power to the statue of Zeus, making him resemble something truly superhuman and god-like. There are two theories regarding the destruction of such a large statue: one is that the statue was dissembled and reassembled at Constantinople and it was destroyed there in 475AD in a fire. Some continue by saying that the man responsible for this movement was indeed Lausus, a Greek art collector, who fell in love with the statue so much he had to keep it near him. The second theory is that the statue was never moved and remained in its original place until it burnt in a fire in 425AD. Either theory may be true and there have never been reports of a copy of the statue being found; in a way the descriptions of the statue passed down by our ancestors allow each of us to have a slightly different image of Phidias’s work which only makes this statue of Zeus even more magical than before.