The Statue of Zeus at Olympia



The statue of Olympian Zeus was erected at Olympia, in the Peloponnesus of Greece, by the great sculptor Phidias in the 5th century BC. It was a towering structure of ivory and gold, 40 feet high, majestic and beautiful. After about 10 centuries of existence the statue was destroyed. Our only idea of it is gained from coins of Elis, which are thought to bear copies of the original.