The Panathenaic Stadium — known locally as Kallimármaro, meaning 'beautiful marble' — is one of Athens' most quietly astonishing sites. Built entirely from Pentelic marble, it is the only stadium in the world made entirely of that material, and it sits in a natural hollow between two hills just east of the city center like a relic from a dream of antiquity. Its origins go back to 330 BC, when Lykourgos constructed a track here for the Panathenaic Games, but the version you see today was rebuilt in AD 144 by Herodes Atticus and then restored again for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 — making it the only venue in history to have hosted both ancient and modern Olympics.
Monument