Visit Athens Guide
The Temple of Olympian Zeus
The Temple of Olympian Zeus, the Olympieion, is the field of enormous Corinthian columns on the flat ground below the Acropolis, with Hadrian's Arch on the pavement beside it. It was the largest temple the Greek world ever completed and it took about 638 years to finish. This page has the hours, the price and what survives, as checked in Q3 2026. The rock above it is on the Acropolis page, and the wider plan on the Athens city guide homepage.
Quick answer What it costs, how long it takes, and the winter trap
The Temple of Olympian Zeus costs €20 full and €10 reduced, takes about half an hour, and closes at 15:00 from 1 November to 31 March — three hours before the Acropolis.
Key takeaways
- Fifteen columns stand of an original 104, and one lies where a storm dropped it in 1852 — what is left explains what you are looking at.
- Hadrian's Arch is outside the fence on the pavement, free and visible at any hour, so a closed gate does not cost you the arch.
- It is eight minutes from the Acropolis Museum and is the natural second stop after it, not after the rock.
- €20 for half an hour is the worst value per minute of any central site, which is why it belongs in a multi-site bundle if you are buying one.
- In winter this is the site that catches people: the opening-hours table shows which gates shut at three and which at five.
Key facts
Opening hours
| 1 April – 31 August, daily | 08:00–20:00 |
|---|---|
| 1–15 September, daily | 08:00–19:30 |
| 16–30 September, daily | 08:00–19:00 |
| 1–15 October, daily | 08:00–18:30 |
| 16–31 October, daily | 08:00–18:00 |
| 1 November – 31 March, daily | 08:00–15:00 |
Closed 1 January, 25 March, 1 May, Orthodox Easter Sunday, 25 and 26 December
Admission
- Adult
- €20
- Reduced
- €10
- Free
- 6 March, 18 April, 18 May, the last weekend of September, 28 October, and the first and third Sunday from 1 November to 31 March
Planning it
- Time needed
- Not stated by the site; our routing: 30 minutes, and it is mostly open ground
- Book ahead
- Optional — walk-up usually fine
- Address
- Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, 105 57 Athens
The ways in, priced from hh.gr and GetYourGuide on 1 September 2026. This is one of the seven sites the abolished combination ticket used to cover, and one of the few where a bundle changes the arithmetic.
| Option | Price | Includes | Cancel | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official ticket | €20 full / €10 reduced | The enclosure and the columns | Per the platform's terms | Official site |
| Acropolis plus up to five sites | Listed at €36 | This site among them | Per listing | Check Availability |
| Acropolis and mythology walk | From €45 | The rock, this temple and the Ancient Agora with a guide | Per listing | Check Availability |
| Acropolis e-ticket with add-ons | Listed at €36 | Optional add-on entry to this site | Free cancellation per listing | Check Availability |
Of all the central sites this is the one where a bundle earns its keep: the visit is short and the gate price is the same €20 as the Ancient Agora, where you will spend three times as long. Buy it inside a pass or accept that you are paying for the photograph.
Ways in to the Olympieion
The cards behind the table, with the operator's own rating and review count.
from €36
Athens: Acropolis Ticket & Heritage Sites + Acropolis Audio
The bundle the official shop does not sell: the Acropolis slot plus entry to up to five more archaeological sites, including both Agoras and the Temple of Olympian Zeus.
Check Availability
from €45
Athens: Acropolis and Mythology Highlights Small Group Tour
The rock plus the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the Ancient Agora, told through the myths attached to each: a comprehensive first day on foot.
Check Availability
from €36
Athens: Acropolis Ticket & Audio Guide + Free Cancellation
Acropolis e-ticket with free cancellation and optional add-ons for the Acropolis Museum, the two Agoras, Kerameikos, the Temple of Zeus or the National Archaeological Museum.
Check AvailabilityPrices, ratings and details are the platform's own, checked in Q3 2026; euro figures are the listed prices — the platform bills in your account's currency.
What is left, and what it took
A building programme that ran from a tyrant to an emperor, with five centuries of nothing in the middle.
638 years
Work began in the sixth century BC under the Peisistratid tyrants, on a scale meant to rival the great Ionian temples. It stopped when the tyranny fell and stood as a foundation for four hundred years. Antiochus IV of Syria restarted it in the second century BC with a Roman architect and switched the order to Corinthian; that stopped too.
It was finally completed and dedicated by the emperor Hadrian in AD 131 — about 638 years after the first stone. Hadrian put a colossal chryselephantine Zeus inside and a statue of himself beside it.
Fifteen columns of 104
The temple had 104 columns, each about seventeen metres high and two metres thick. Fifteen stand. A sixteenth lies on the ground in its drums, exactly where it fell in a storm in 1852 — it was never re-erected, and it is the best thing on the site, because it lets you see how these columns were built as stacked cylinders rather than carved whole.
Why so little survives
Not war but quarrying. After the temple fell out of use its marble was the largest convenient supply of dressed stone in Athens, and it went into churches, houses and lime kilns for a thousand years. The site was so thoroughly robbed that the ancient ground level is visible only because excavation went down to it.
Hadrian's Arch, on the pavement
Just outside the fence, at the edge of Vasilissis Amalias Avenue, stands the arch Hadrian's Athenians built to mark the boundary between the old city and his new quarter. Its two inscriptions face opposite ways — one naming Theseus and one naming Hadrian as founder — which is the whole political argument of Roman Athens in two lines. It costs nothing and needs no ticket; you can stand under it at midnight.
Visiting: hours, gate and how long
A short visit on open ground, with one seasonal trap.
The hours
Daily from 08:00. Closing is 20:00 from 1 April to 31 August, stepping down through the autumn to 18:00 by late October, then 15:00 from 1 November to 31 March. Last admission twenty minutes before.
That winter 15:00 is three hours earlier than the Acropolis, which is how visitors arrive at four o'clock in January to a locked gate.
Getting there
The entrance is on Vasilissis Olgas Avenue. Akropoli station on Line 2 is about five minutes away and Syntagma on Lines 2 and 3 about ten. It is eight minutes on foot from the Acropolis Museum along the same avenue, which is the sensible way to reach it.
How long, and what there is
Half an hour is enough. The enclosure is flat open ground with almost no shade, a shop, toilets and step-free access; there is no museum and no interpretation to speak of. In July the middle of the day here is genuinely unpleasant.
Late afternoon light on the Corinthian capitals is what the site is for.
Olympieion map: the gate, the arch and what is near
The entrance, the arch outside the fence, and what is within ten minutes.
Next stop from the Olympieion
Walk minutes are our estimates from the GPS distances.
Acropolis Museum
West along the avenue. €20, no timed entry, open to 22:00 on Fridays — the museum has the timetable.
8 min walkPanathenaic Stadium
East past the Zappeion. €12, tickets at the desk only — the stadium has the rules.
10 min walkNational Garden
Free and shaded, which matters in August. The National Garden is the walking route north to Syntagma.
4 min walkOlympieion questions
How much does it cost to see the Temple of Olympian Zeus?
€20 full and €10 reduced at the official price, or nothing on the state free-entry days. Hadrian's Arch beside it is outside the fence and free. The ways in compares the bundles that include it.
What happened to the Temple of Olympian Zeus?
It was quarried. After the temple fell out of use its marble became the most convenient supply of dressed stone in Athens and went into churches, houses and lime kilns for centuries. Fifteen of 104 columns are left, plus one that fell in an 1852 storm and was never raised. What is left has the story.
Is the Temple of Zeus part of the Acropolis?
No. It stands on the flat ground below the rock, about fifteen minutes' walk away, and it is a separate site with a separate €20 ticket. The Acropolis covers only what is inside its own fence.
How long do you need there?
Half an hour. It is open ground with the columns at one end and no museum; the pleasure is the scale and the light, not the reading.
What time does it close in winter?
15:00, from 1 November to 31 March, with last admission at 14:40 — three hours before the Acropolis shuts. The opening-hours table lines up every central site.
Do I need a ticket for Hadrian's Arch?
No. It stands on the public pavement at the edge of the avenue, outside the archaeological enclosure, and is lit at night.
Reviewed Q3 2026 (July–September 2026); next review Q4 2026. Prices, hours and terms are set by the venue or operator and confirmed at checkout.
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