Olympia, Greece

Visitors look at the exhibits from the collection of Stratos Klimou, during a temporary exhibition of historic Olympic torches in Ancient Olympia, Tuesday. Even without the help of Apollo, the flame that is to burn at the Paris Olympics was kindled Tuesday at the site of the ancient games in southern Greece. [Reuters]

ANCIENT OLYMPIA - A priestess prays to a dead sun god in front of a fallen Greek temple. If the sky is clear, a flame spurts that will burn in Paris throughout the world's top sporting event. Speeches ensue.

On Tuesday, the flame for this summer's Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony.

The torch for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games was lit in ancient Olympia in a traditional ceremony on Tuesday, marking the final stretch of the seven-year preparations for the Games' start on July 26.

At the facilities of the International Olympic Academy

ANCIENT OLYMPIA - The torch for the Paris 2024 Olympics was lit by the sun's rays in a dress rehearsal in ancient Olympia on Monday ahead of Tuesday's official ceremony that will mark the final stretch to the Games in France.

ANCIENT OLYMPIA - No one knows what music in ancient Greece sounded like or how dancers once moved.

Every two years, a new interpretation of the ancient performance gets a global audience. It takes place in southern Greece at a site many still consider sacred: the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

Next month's Paris 2024 Olympics flame lighting ceremony in ancient Olympia will showcase a new high priestess, redesigned costumes and fresh music as Greece looks to revamp the traditional ceremony.

Citizens in four villages in the region of Ilia, western Greece, were told on Saturday to evacuate in a message sent via the emergency number 112 due to a wildfire in a nearby area that broke out earlier in the day.

The message told residents of Paleovarvasaina, Karoutes, Strefi and Smila to move towards Ancient Olympia. 

Three large wildfires churned across Greece on Aug. 7, with one threatening whole towns and cutting a line across Evia, the country's second-largest island, isolating its northern part. Others engulfed forested mountainsides and skirted ancient sites, leaving behind a trail of destruction that one official described as "a biblical catastrophe."

class='cf'>

The restoration study for the workshop of the famed Greek sculptor, painter and architect Phidias (480-430) in Ancient Olympia has been approved by the Central Archaeological Council (KAS).