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79-519: The Shell Guides were originally a 20th-century series of guidebooks on the counties of Britain . They were aimed at a new breed of car-driving metropolitan tourist, and for those who sought guides that were neither too serious nor too shallow and who took pleasure in the ordinary and peculiar culture of small town Britain. In the three decades after the Second World War the Shell Guides provided

158-511: A Byron for sentiment, and finds out by them what he is to know and feel by every step." After Karl Baedeker died, his son, also named Karl, inherited the Baedeker travel guide business; however, he was killed in action during World War I. British nationalism and anti-German sentiment resulted in some British people labeling Baedeker guides "instrumental to the German war effort", and their popularity in

237-577: A parabolic mirror in front of the Temple of Hera and then transported by a torch to the place where the Games are held. When the 2004 Summer Olympics was hosted by Athens , the men's and women's shot put competitions were held at the Olympia stadium . Although the shot put is not among the modern athletics events with a lineage dating back to the ancient Olympics, it was chosen as requiring least disruption at

316-671: A Hungarian-born author of travel articles , who had emigrated to the United States before the war, wrote guidebooks which introduced English-reading audiences to continental Europe. Arthur Frommer , an American soldier stationed in Europe during the Korean War , used his experience traveling around the Continent as the basis for Europe on $ 5 a Day (1957), which introduced readers to options for budget travel in Europe. Both authors' guidebooks became

395-658: A country in Europe, Africa, the Near East or the Far East. An important transitional figure from the idiosyncratic style of the Grand Tour travelogues to the more informative and impersonal guidebook was Mariana Starke . Her 1824 guide to travel in France and Italy served as an essential companion for British travelers to the Continent in the early 19th century. She recognized that with the growing numbers of Britons traveling abroad after 1815

474-468: A late feature, but no later than Pindar. The classical Pelopion was a separate sanctuary defined by a peribolos wall dating to the 6th century BC, long after the conventional start of the Olympic games, 776 BC (which cannot be disrespected without tampering with the entire ancient Greek dating system). This was certainly a remodeling of a previously existing sanctuary of Pelops . A 1987-plus excavation of

553-539: A more limited way by Dörpfeld between 1908 and 1929 but a new systematic excavation began in 1936 on the occasion of the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin under Emil Kunze and Hans Schleif . Their excavation focus was on the area to the south of the stadium, the South Stoa, bath complex and gymnasion. Between 1952 and 1966, Kunze continued the excavation joined by architect Alfred Mallwitz . They excavated Pheidias' workshop,

632-425: A pink-flowering low tree. If they are natural to the site now, they probably were in antiquity. Olea europaea, olive , is of course ubiquitous in the region, usually growing in planted groves, but sometimes wild. Platanus orientalis , the plane tree, is common in the area, and Pinus halepensis . Aleppo pine , also covered Kronion until the fires of 2007-2009. There is not much indication of what structures were in

711-524: A sensitive archeological site. Buildings and monuments in Olympia have been selected numerous times as main motif of collectors' coins. One of the recent samples is the €100 Greek Crypt of Olympia commemorative coin , minted in 2003 to commemorate the 2004 Olympics. In the obverse of the coin, the Crypt of Olympia is depicted. The crypt is a long and narrow vaulted passage through which the athletes and judges entered

790-467: A series of earthquakes. Invading tribes in 267 AD led to the centre of the site being fortified with material robbed from its monuments. Despite the destruction, the Olympic festival continued to be held at the site until the last Olympiad in 393 AD, after which the Christian emperor Theodosius I implemented a ban. The Temple of Zeus was apparently destroyed around 426 AD, during the persecution of pagans in

869-401: A simple track. The stadium was remodelled around 500 BC with sloping sides for spectators and shifted slightly eastward. Over the course of the 6th century BC a range of sports were added to the Olympic festival. In 580 BC, Elis, in alliance with Sparta, occupied Pisa and regained the control over the sanctuary. The classical period , between the 5th and 4th centuries BC, was the golden age of

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948-499: A surreptitiously subversive synthesis of the British countryside. The series started in June 1934, with John Betjeman 's Cornwall , and continued until 1984, by which time about half the country had been covered. The series was sponsored by the oil company Shell . The original guides were published on a county-by-county basis, under the editorial control of the poet John Betjeman and (later)

1027-455: A template for later guides. In the United States , the first published guidebook was Gideon Minor Davison's The Fashionable Tour , published in 1822, and Theodore Dwight's The Northern Traveller and Henry Gilpin's The Northern Tour , both from 1825. The modern guidebook emerged in the 1830s, with the burgeoning market for long distance tourism. The publisher John Murray began printing

1106-518: A terse and elegant style, intended for the klismos traveller rather than the actual tourist on the ground; he is believed to have worked in Alexandria and to have flourished around the time of Hadrian . An early "remarkably well-informed and interesting guidebook" was the Hellados Periegesis ( Descriptions of Greece ) of Pausanias of the 2nd century A.D. This most famous work is a guide to

1185-420: A vaulted corridor at the start. Spectators sat mainly on the field's sloping flanks. The length of this field became the standard stadion , an ancient Greek unit of distance, which appears in all the geographers. The stadium has been resurrected for Olympic use with no intentional alteration of the ancient topography. Transient stands are easily thrown up and removed. The first major games to have been played at

1264-556: Is a small town in Elis on the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece , famous for the nearby archaeological site of the same name. The site was a major Panhellenic religious sanctuary of ancient Greece , where the ancient Olympic Games were held every four years throughout Classical antiquity , from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. They were restored on a global basis in 1894 in honor of

1343-483: Is because of him, that from the outset, artists were invited to produce Shell Guides; John and Paul Nash for instance and of course John Piper. During the early 1960s a series of 48 cheaper Shilling Guides appeared, much to Betjeman's annoyance, especially as they sold in greater numbers. Published by the Shell-Mex and BP joint venture , each had just 20 pages with a full colour card cover, representing highlights of

1422-669: Is the Pelopion , tomb of the quasi-mythical king Pelops , who gives his name to the Peloponnese and was ancestor of Agamemnon and Menelaus , the Greek kings of the Trojan War . The tomb suggests that he may not have been entirely mythical. Another location that has a special interest to both ancients and moderns is the stadium . It is basically a field with start and end lines marked off by transverse curbing. The athletes entered under an archway of

1501-545: The Murray's Handbooks for Travellers in London from 1836. The series covered tourist destinations in Europe, Asia and northern Africa, and he introduced the concept of "sights" which he rated in terms of their significance using stars for Starke's exclamation points. According to scholar James Buzard, the Murray style "exemplified the exhaustive rational planning that was as much an ideal of

1580-639: The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by Antipater of Sidon . Very close to the Temple of Zeus which housed this statue, the studio of Pheidias was excavated in the 1950s. Evidence found there, such as sculptor's tools, corroborates this opinion. The ancient ruins sit north of the Alpheios River and south of Mount Kronos (named after the Greek deity Kronos ). The Kladeos , a tributary of the Alpheios, borders

1659-640: The Twelve Olympians , the major deities of Ancient Greek religion , were believed to live. Ancient history records that Pisa and Elis , other villages in the region, contended with Olympia for management of the precinct, and that Olympia won, implying that the village was not identical to the precinct. The putative location of the ancient village is the modern village, which appears to have been inhabited continuously since ancient times. The archaeological site held over 760 significant buildings, and ruins of many of these survive. Of special interest to Greeks

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1738-572: The temenos boundary, Olympia sprawled beyond the boundary wall, especially in the areas devoted to the games. To the north of the sanctuary can be found the Prytaneion and the Philippeion , as well as the array of treasuries representing the various city-states. The Metroon lies to the south of these treasuries, with the Echo Stoa to the east. The hippodrome and later stadium were located east of

1817-508: The Alfeios River for hydroelectric purposes. The catchment up to Olympia is flat or rolling and is agricultural; upstream from Olympia the river drains the foothills of the mountains. Much of the land around the archaeological site is given to dendriculture; that is, symmetric rows of olive trees. The site and town of Olympia were threatened by the 2007 forest fires , but no damage was reported. The name of Archaia Olympia ("Ancient Olympia")

1896-489: The Altis, except the games must have been part of the "feasting" and therefore were held in the "resting-place". The size of the precinct must have varied as the site developed, as the original stadium is known to have extended well within the later east wall. That the temple of Zeus was built within the precinct is a reasonable assumption. As there is no trace of a succession of walls, the wall might reasonably be presumed to have been

1975-451: The Echo Stoa. To the south of the sanctuary is the South Stoa and the bouleuterion , whereas the palaestra , the workshop of Pheidias , the gymnasion , and the Leonidaion lie to the west. Olympia was also known for the gigantic chryselephantine ( ivory and gold on a wooden frame) statue of Zeus that was the cult image in his temple, sculpted by Pheidias , which was named one of

2054-453: The Islands ) than in the earlier series. Whilst the original Shell County Guides are now highly collectable, the later titles (published by Faber and Faber , Ebury Press or Michael Joseph) tend to be shunned by collectors and book dealers alike, as supply exceeds demand. Guidebook Travel guides or guide books can also take the form of travel websites . A forerunner of the guidebook

2133-535: The Leonidaion and the north wall of the stadium. They also excavated the southeast section of the sanctuary and out of approximately 140 debris pits found many bronze and ceramic objects along with terracotta roof tiles. Mallwitz took charge of the excavations between 1972 and 1984 revealing important dating evidence for the stadium, graves, and the location of the Prytaneion. From 1984 to 1996, Helmut Kyrieleis took over

2212-464: The Move ). He published this book with little changes for the next ten years, which provided the seeds for Baedeker's new approach to travel guides. After Klein died, he decided to publish a new edition in 1839, to which he added many of his own ideas on what he thought a travel guide should offer the traveller. Baedeker's ultimate aim was to free the traveller from having to look for information anywhere outside

2291-528: The Olympia stadium were said to have first begun in the 720s. These prestigious ancient games took place during the festival of Zeus at Olympia. Olympia was a sanctuary, but it was within the independent state of Elis, and since the Eleans managed the games, there was sometimes bias. The famous Olympic truce only mandated safe passage for visitors and did not stop all wars in Greece or even at Olympia. The village services

2370-526: The Pelopion established "a continuous ceramic sequence for the 11th century onward" including submycenaean (1100-1000 BC) and protogeometric (1000-900 BC). There was a good sprinkling of "cultic" material (votive figurines and vases). The name Altis was derived from a corruption of the Elean word also meaning "the grove" because the area was wooded, olive and plane trees in particular. It used to be thought that

2449-488: The Second World War intervened. Only one non-English area was covered: The West Coast of Scotland by Stephen Bone , arguably the most political of all the Shell Guides. After the war, however, every bit of Wales was covered in five different titles. It was not until 1951 that the next Shell Guide was produced. Jack Beddington's involvement in the Shell Guides and Shell advertising in general cannot be overestimated and it

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2528-637: The United Kingdom dropped considerably. As a result, the two editors of Baedeker's English-language titles left the company and acquired the rights to Murray's Handbooks . The resulting guide books, called the Blue Guides to distinguish them from the red-covered Baedekers, constituted one of the major guide book series for much of the 20th century and are still published today. Soon after World War II , two new names emerged which combined European and American perspectives on international travel. Eugene Fodor ,

2607-743: The West, the guidebook developed from the published personal experiences of aristocrats who traveled through Europe on the Grand Tour . As the appreciation of art, architecture and antiquity became ever-more essential ingredients of the noble upbringing so they predominated in the guidebooks, particularly those devoted to the Italian peninsula. Richard Lassels (1603–1668) wrote a series of manuscript guides which were eventually published posthumously in Paris and London (1670) as The Voyage of Italy . Grand Tour guidebooks poured off

2686-517: The adjacent archaeological site to the southeast. The Kladeos River forms the site's western border. Visitors walk over the bridge to find themselves in front of the main gate. Full visitation is an extensive walking event. Some excavation is in progress there frequently. Moveable artifacts for the most part have found a home in one of the site's three museums. Olympia lies in the valley of the Alfeiós River (also Anglicized as Alpheus or Alpheios) in

2765-429: The area of the great altar of Zeus, where the largest sacrifices were made. Pindar , the 5th-century-BC Theban poet, says that Heracles founded the "sacred precinct" (zatheon alsos) next to the tomb of Pelops in honor of Zeus , his own father, referring to the precinct founded as the Altis, and made the "encircling area a resting-place for feasting," honoring the river Alfeios and the 12 Olympian gods. He assigned

2844-450: The area. Researchers also revealed fine pottery remains dated back to Greece's Geometric art period. The ancient site of the games had been included during all the intervening centuries within a community yet called Olympia. In modern terms it became Archaia Olympia, "Ancient Olympia," and was a deme, or municipality, of its own. In 2011 it was combined for reasons of economy of government with three other former demes within which union

2923-402: The artist John Piper . There were three publishers involved in the publication of the thirteen pre-war titles: The Architectural Press, Batsford and finally, in 1939, Faber and Faber . In 1939 all the previous twelve titles were re-issued and one new one in the same format: David Verey 's Gloucestershire . The next one planned was Shropshire , to be co-written by Betjeman and Piper. However,

3002-411: The books by Baedeker and Murray helped sharpen and formalize the complementary genre of the personal travelogue , which was freed from the burden of serving as a guide book. The Baedeker and Murray guide books were hugely popular and were standard resources for travelers well into the 20th century. As William Wetmore Story said in the 1860s, "Every Englishman abroad carries a Murray for information, and

3081-544: The central part of the sanctuary including the Temple of Zeus, Temple of Hera, Metroon, Bouleuterion, Philipeion, Echo Stoa, Treasuries and Palaestra. Important finds included sculptures from the Temple of Zeus, the Nike of Paeonius , the Hermes of Praxiteles and many bronzes. In total 14,000 objects were recorded. The finds were displayed in a museum on the site. Excavation continued in

3160-493: The county covered, and included a two-colour map of the area, preceded by an essay on the history and landscape, and followed by a short gazetteer of main towns and tourist attractions. The original artwork for this series was sold by Shell in 2002 at an auction held by Sotheby's. These images by such artists as Keith Shackleton and David Gentleman also featured in the (now collectable) Shell posters that were published for use in schools. These appeared between 1959 and 1965. From

3239-799: The emergence of digital technology, many publishers turned to electronic distribution, either in addition to or instead of print publication. This can take the form of downloadable documents for reading on a portable computer or hand held device such a PDA or iPod , or online information accessible via a web site. This enabled guidebook publishers to keep their information more current. Traditional guide book incumbents Lonely Planet , Frommers , Rough Guides , and In Your Pocket City Guides , and newcomers such as Schmap or Ulysses Travel Guides are now offering travel guides for download . New online and interactive guides such as Tripadvisor , Wikivoyage , and Travellerspoint enable individual travelers to share their own experiences and contribute information to

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3318-540: The emerging tourist industry as it was of British commercial and industrial organization generally." In Germany, Karl Baedeker acquired the publishing house of Franz Friedrich Röhling in Koblenz, which in 1828 had published a handbook for travellers by Professor Johannes August Klein entitled Rheinreise von Mainz bis Cöln; ein Handbuch für Schnellreisende ( A Rhine Journey from Mainz to Cologne ; A Handbook for Travellers on

3397-464: The erection of the Philippeion . Around 300 BC the largest building on the site, the Leonidaion , was constructed to house important visitors. Due to the increasing significance of the games, further athletic buildings were constructed including the Palaestra (3rd century BC), Gymnasion (2nd century BC) and bath houses (c.300 BC). Finally, in 200 BC, a vaulted archway was erected linking the entrance of

3476-435: The example of John Murray III . Baedeker's early guides had tan covers, but from 1856 onwards, Murray's red bindings and gilt lettering became the familiar hallmark of all Baedeker guides as well, and the content became famous for its clarity, detail and accuracy. Baedeker and Murray produced impersonal, objective guides; works prior to this combined factual information and personal sentimental reflection. The availability of

3555-413: The first excavations, accompanied by the painters Pierre Achille Poirot , Pierre Félix Trézel and Amaury-Duval . The site was divided topographically into squares, trenches were dug, excavations were undertaken in straight lines, and models for restoration were proposed: archaeology was becoming rationalized, and it was in this way that the location and identity of the Temple of Zeus were determined for

3634-599: The first time. Since the 1870s, the excavation and preservation of Ancient Olympia has been the responsibility of the German Archaeological Institute at Athens . The first major excavation of Olympia began in 1875, funded by the German government after negotiation of exclusive access by Ernst Curtius . Other archaeologists responsible for the dig were Gustav Hirschfeld , George Treu , Adolf Furtwängler (who worked alongside architects), A. Boetticher , Wilhelm Dörpfeld , and Richard Borrmann . They excavated

3713-564: The following communities (villages within the communities given in brackets): When Pierre de Coubertin , the founder of the International Olympic Committee, died in 1937, a monument to him was erected at ancient Olympia and, emulating Evangelis Zappas , whose head is buried under a statue in front of the Zappeion , his heart was buried at the monument. After suppression of the ancient Olympic Games in 394 AD by Theodosius I ,

3792-477: The foundations for extensive series, eventually covering destinations around the world. Since then, Let's Go , Lonely Planet , Insight Guides , Rough Guides , Eyewitness Travel Guides and many other travel guide series have been published. Specialist climbing guidebooks for mountains have a long history owing to the special needs of mountaineering , rock climbing , hill walking , and scrambling . The guides by W A Poucher for example, are widely used for

3871-409: The four became municipal units. The terminology can be confusing, as "ancient Olympia" can be either the modern municipal unit, or only the site of the ruins. The town has a railway station and is the easternmost terminus of the line of Olympia- Pyrgos (Ilia) . The train station with the freight yard to its west is located about 300 m east of the town centre. It is linked by GR-74 , and the new road

3950-586: The guide. Wikivoyage, CityLeaves, and Travellerspoint make the entire contents of their guides updatable by users, and make the information in their guides available as open content , free for others to use. This list is a select sample of the full range of English language guide book publishers - either contemporary or historical. Olympia, Greece Olympia ( Modern Greek : Ολυμπία [oli(m)ˈbi.a] ; Ancient Greek : Ὀλυμπία [olympí.aː] ), officially Archaia Olympia ( Greek : Αρχαία Ολυμπία lit.   ' Ancient Olympia ' ),

4029-505: The hill regions of Britain . There are many more special guides to the numerous climbing grounds in Britain published by the Climbers Club , for example. Travel guides are made for diving destinations and specific dive sites . These have been published as magazine articles, stand-alone books and websites, often publicising the dive sites in the vicinity of specific service providers. With

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4108-454: The ideal of peaceful international contention for excellence. The sacred precinct, named the Altis, was primarily dedicated to Zeus , although other gods were worshipped there. The games conducted in his name drew visitors from all over the Greek world as one of a group of such "Panhellenic" centres, which helped to build the identity of the ancient Greeks as a nation. Despite the name, it is nowhere near Mount Olympus in northern Greece, where

4187-654: The interesting places, works of architecture, sculpture, and curious customs of Ancient Greece , and is still useful to Classicists today. With the advent of Christianity, the guide for the European religious pilgrim became a useful guidebook. An early account is that of the pilgrim Egeria , who visited the Holy Land in the 4th century CE and left a detailed itinerary. In the medieval Arab world , guide books for travelers in search of artifacts and treasures were written by Arabic treasure hunters, magicians, and alchemists . This

4266-512: The late 1950s to the early 1970s, a series of general titles under the Shell Guide banner were produced, covering most of the countries in northwest Europe. Guides to subjects such as rivers, islands, viewpoints, archaeology, gardens, flowers, history, wildlife and museums were also published. In 1987, Shell issued a final series of New Shell Guides , published by Michael Joseph and generally covering rather larger areas (e.g. Northern Scotland and

4345-447: The late Roman Empire , following an edict by Theodosius II enforcing the ban on pagan festivals. The workshop of Pheidias was turned into a Basilica and the site was inhabited by a Christian community. Archaeological evidence suggests that small scale Olympic events (perhaps in Christian guise) were still being held secretly until Justinian's plague and two earthquakes devastated the place mid 6th century. Repeated floods ensured that

4424-429: The majority of her readers would now be in family groups and on a budget. She therefore included for the first time a wealth of advice on luggage, obtaining passports, the precise cost of food and accommodation in each city and even advice on the care of invalid family members. She also devised a system of exclamation mark ratings [!!!], a forerunner of today's star ratings . Her books, published by John Murray , served as

4503-416: The name "Hill of Cronus" to the previously unnamed hill, and then instituted the Olympic games. Pindar creates in a single, compact sentence, what has been called "Olympic space". The space is a work of man created by a sequence of operations: first, Herakles lays out (stathmato) the alsos with a surveying instrument called a stathme. Second, he "fixes" the border of the Altis (paxais Altin), and third clears

4582-603: The presses throughout the eighteenth century, those such as Patrick Brydone 's A Tour Through Sicily and Malta being read by many who never left England. Between 1626 and 1649, the Dutch publisher Officina Elzeviriana (House of Elzevir) published a bestselling pocketbook series, the Respublicae Elzevirianae (Elzevirian Republics), which has been described as the "ancestor of the modern travel guide". Each volume gave information (geography, population, economy, history) on

4661-634: The same purpose as the later Roman itinerarium of road stops. The periegesis , or "progress around" was an established literary genre during the Hellenistic age. A lost work by Agaclytus describing Olympia ( περὶ Ὀλυμπίας ) is referred to by the Suda and Photius . Dionysius Periegetes (literally, Dionysius the Traveller) was the author of a description of the habitable world in Greek hexameter verse written in

4740-402: The settlement was finally abandoned altogether in the early 7th Century. Over time the site was buried under alluvial deposits, up to 8 metres deep, long thought to be the result of river flooding. Modern research hypothesizes instead—based on the presence of mollusc and gastropod shells and foraminifera— that the site was buried by sea waters resulting from repeated tsunamis . The exact site

4819-413: The site and the focus shifted to the earlier history of the sanctuary with excavation of the Prytaneion and Pelopion. In March 2021, archaeologists announced the discovery of a 2.500 year-old unbroken bronze bull idol near to the temple of Greek deity Zeus . According to archaeologist Zaharaoula Leventouri, one of the statue's horns stuck to the ground after a heavy rainfall and was carefully removed from

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4898-419: The site at Olympia. A wide range of new religious and secular buildings as well as structures were made. The Temple of Zeus was built mid 5th century BC. Its size, scale and ornaments were beyond anything previously constructed on the site. The Greek Baths and further sporting facilities, including the final iteration of the stadium, and the hippodrome (for chariot-racing) were constructed. The Prytaneion

4977-560: The site dates from around 600 BC. At this time, the Skiloudians, allies of the Pisatans, built the Temple of Hera . The Treasuries and the Pelopion were built during the course of the 6th century BC. The secular structures and athletic arenas were also under construction during this period, including the Bouleuterion . The first stadium was constructed around 560 BC and it consisted of just

5056-474: The site had been occupied since about 1500 BC, with a religious cult of Zeus developing around 1000 BC. It may be that instead there was only a sanctuary from the 9th or 8th centuries, though the question remains in debate. Others believe that remains of food and burnt offerings dating back to the 10th century BC give evidence of a long history of religious activity at the site. No buildings have survived from this earliest period of use. The first Olympic festival

5135-436: The site of the sanctuary at Olympia on 10 May 1829. As most of the buildings were invisible, the general identification was made possible thanks to the more precise descriptions of Edward Dodwell and John Spencer Stanhope . The French archaeologists spent six weeks on the site. Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (director of the section of Archaeology) and Abel Blouet (director of the section of Architecture and Sculpture) undertook

5214-525: The space around it (en katharo diekrine). Fourth, he "made" (etheke) ground (pedon) as an entertainment space (lusin) for festivals (dorpou). Then he goes on to "honor" the ford of the Alfeios (necessarily to the south), the 12 gods, and to name the unnamed hill for Kronos. Then he can hold the first games. Today trees have been allowed to grow over the site quasi-grove. These are primarily Cercis siliquastrum , colloquially "Judas-tree" (nothing to do with Judas),

5293-431: The spirit of the games, international peaceful competition by individuals for excellence, continued. The games were resurrected in 1894 based on the ancient model, but more international than ever. The ideology of the new games turned to the site of ancient Olympia for its inspiration, where even the ruins assumed a symbolic significance. The Olympic flame of the modern-day Olympic Games is lit by reflection of sunlight in

5372-575: The stadium to the sanctuary. During the Roman period, the games were opened up to all citizens of the Roman Empire . A programme of new buildings and extensive repairs, including to the Temple of Zeus, took place. In 150 AD, the Nympheum (or Exedra ) was built. New baths replaced the older Greek examples in 100 AD and an aqueduct was constructed in 160 AD. The 3rd century saw the site suffer heavy damage from

5451-468: The travel guide; whether about routes, transport, accommodation, restaurants, tipping, sights, walks or prices. Baedeker emulated the style of John Murray's guidebooks, but included unprecedented detailed information. In 1846, Baedeker introduced his star ratings for sights, attractions and lodgings, following Mrs. Starke's and Murray's. This edition was also his first "experimental" red guide. He also decided to call his travel guides "handbooks", following

5530-500: The west. The Altis was an irregular quadrangular area more than 183 m (200 yd) on each side and walled except to the North where it was bounded by the Kronion (Mount Kronos). It consisted of an arrangement of buildings, the most important of which are the Temple of Hera (or Heraion/Heraeum), the Temple of Zeus , the Pelopion , and open sites used for traditional activities, such as

5609-532: The western part of the Peloponnese , today around 18 km (11 mi) from the Gulf of Kyparissia in the Ionian Sea , but in antiquity perhaps half that distance. According to Pausanias , there were over 70 temples in total, as well as treasuries, altars, statues, and other structures dedicated to many deities. Somewhat in contrast to Delphi , where a similar large collection of monuments were tightly packed within

5688-538: Was built at the northwest side of the site in 470 BC. In the late classical period, further structures were added to the site. The Metroon was constructed near the Treasuries around 400 BC. The erection of the Echo Stoa , around 350 BC, separated the sanctuary from the area of the games and stadium. The South Stoa was built at the southern edge of the sanctuary at approximately the same time. The late 4th century BC saw

5767-406: Was extended to the new municipality of 2011. Four former municipalities became municipal units: Archaia Olympia now applied to both a municipality and a unit. The municipality has an area of 545.121 km , the municipal unit 178.944 km . For the subdivisions of the municipal units of Foloi, Lampeia, and Lasiona, see under those topics. The municipal unit of Archaia Olympia is divided into

5846-436: Was often written in narrative , prose , essay and diary style. Travel literature authors such as Fan Chengda (1126–1193) and Xu Xiake (1587–1641) incorporated a wealth of geographical and topographical information into their writing, while the 'daytrip essay' Record of Stone Bell Mountain by the noted poet and statesman Su Shi (1037–1101) presented a philosophical and moral argument as its central purpose. In

5925-403: Was opened in the 1980s. The next stretch N and NE of Olympia opened in 2005. The distance from Pyrgos is 20 km (12 mi), about 50 km (31 mi) SW of Lampeia , W of Tripoli and Arcadia and 4 km (2 mi) north of Krestena and N of Kyparissia and Messenia . The highway passes north of the ancient ruins. A reservoir is located a few kilometres to the west, impounding

6004-479: Was organized on the site by the authorities of Elis in the 8th century BC – with tradition dating the first games at 776 BC. Major changes were made to the site around 700 BC, including levelling land and digging new wells. Elis' power diminished and the sanctuary fell into the hands of the Pisatans in 676 BC. The Pisatans organized the games until the late 7th century BC. The earliest evidence of building activity on

6083-515: Was particularly the case in Arab Egypt , where treasure hunters were eager to find valuable ancient Egyptian antiquities. Some of the books claimed to be imbued with magic that could dispel the magical barriers believed to be protecting the artifacts. Travel literature became popular during the Song dynasty (960–1279) of medieval China . The genre was called 'travel record literature' (youji wenxue), and

6162-578: Was re-discovered in 1766 by the English antiquarian Richard Chandler . Since then, the site had been visited by several other antiquarian-travellers such as Louis-François-Sébastien Fauvel , François Pouqueville , William Gell , Charles Robert Cockerell and William Martin Leake . The first excavation was not carried out until 1829, when the French archaeologists of the " Expedition Scientifique de Morée " arrived on

6241-520: Was the periplus , an itinerary from landmark to landmark of the ports along a coast. A periplus such as the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea was a manuscript document that listed, in order, the ports and coastal landmarks, with approximate intervening distances, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. This work was possibly written in the middle of the 1st century CE. It served

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