The Stadium
To reach the stadium, leave the site and head back along the road that brought you into Nemea. The Ancient Stadium of Nemea, on sale at the ticket booth, contains a self-guided tour of the stadium.
Coins from every Greek city have been unearthed among the ruins here, proof of how the Games attracted competitors from far and wide. Those coins, along with athletic gear and other artifacts, are on display in a small museum at the site. The 4th-century-B.C. stadium is still largely intact—in fact, races are still sometimes held on its running track.
The dressing room just outside the stadium caused quite a stir when it was discovered in 1991, with few journalists able to resist cracks about what a locker room must smell like after 2,500 years. Be sure to note the vaulted tunnel that leads from the dressing room to the track—this tunnel is one of the great marvels of ancient engineering, and sheds new light on the development of the arch, once thought of as a Roman innovation. This arch’s presence in a pre-Roman structure suggests that troops traveling with Alexander the Great during his India campaign in 326 B.C. may have introduced the architectural concept to the Mediterranean world.
Athletes would have stripped down in the room, oiled their bodies with olive oil, and then entered the stadium through the vaulted tunnel, just as football players today rush onto the playing field. Once you pass through the tunnel, you'll see where the judges sat while spectators sprawled on earthen benches carved out of the hillside itself. When they got thirsty, they could have a drink from the water carried around the racetrack in a stone channel. If you wish, walk down onto the 178m (584-ft.) racecourse and stand at the stone starting line where the athletes took their places for the footraces. Running naked and barefoot, the athletes kept their balance at the starting line by gripping the indentations in the stone with their toes.
Nemea was also famous for its Temple to Zeus, several columns of which remain, although they were mined extensively for a Christian basilica nearby.
To reach the stadium, leave the site and head back along the road that brought you into Nemea. The Ancient Stadium of Nemea, on sale at the ticket booth, contains a self-guided tour of the stadium.
Coins from every Greek city have been unearthed among the ruins here, proof of how the Games attracted competitors from far and wide. Those coins, along with athletic gear and other artifacts, are on display in a small museum at the site. The 4th-century-B.C. stadium is still largely intact—in fact, races are still sometimes held on its running track.
The dressing room just outside the stadium caused quite a stir when it was discovered in 1991, with few journalists able to resist cracks about what a locker room must smell like after 2,500 years. Be sure to note the vaulted tunnel that leads from the dressing room to the track—this tunnel is one of the great marvels of ancient engineering, and sheds new light on the development of the arch, once thought of as a Roman innovation. This arch’s presence in a pre-Roman structure suggests that troops traveling with Alexander the Great during his India campaign in 326 B.C. may have introduced the architectural concept to the Mediterranean world.
Athletes would have stripped down in the room, oiled their bodies with olive oil, and then entered the stadium through the vaulted tunnel, just as football players today rush onto the playing field. Once you pass through the tunnel, you'll see where the judges sat while spectators sprawled on earthen benches carved out of the hillside itself. When they got thirsty, they could have a drink from the water carried around the racetrack in a stone channel. If you wish, walk down onto the 178m (584-ft.) racecourse and stand at the stone starting line where the athletes took their places for the footraces. Running naked and barefoot, the athletes kept their balance at the starting line by gripping the indentations in the stone with their toes.
Nemea was also famous for its Temple to Zeus, several columns of which remain, although they were mined extensively for a Christian basilica nearby.
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