The most striking illustration of the important place accorded to physical training among the Greeks is found in their great national festivals. The very beginnings of recorded history show that in every town there were periodic religious festivals, where sacrifices to some hero or divinity were followed by feasting, dancing, choral songs to the accompaniment of the lyre or the flute, and exhibitions of bodily agility, strength, and skill in the form of competitive exercises. Gradually, in the case of certain localities, the importance and attractiveness of the festival increased and the circle from which visitors were drawn grew wider, until four of them, all in or near the Peloponnesus, finally developed into national occasions—first and foremost of the number, and as far back as the end of the eighth or very early in the seventh century before Christ, that held at Olympia, and in the first half of the sixth century before Christ three others, the Pythia, the Nemea, and the Isthmia. During three centuries in particular, from 600 to 300 B.C., the service they rendered as common centers of interest, binding together the politically distinct members of the Greek race in the parent land and in the far-scattered colonies that dotted the borders of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, was of the greatest value. Olympia lies in a plain near the western limits of the Peloponnesus, about ten miles from the Ionian Sea. The sacred enclosure, some ten acres in extent, contained a grove in the center of which stood a great altar to Zeus, and near it his temple, wherein was a wonderful statue of the god in ivory and gold, the most famous work of Phidias and one of the greatest triumphs of Greek sculpture. Besides other temples, there were numerous altars, votive offerings, statues of gods, heroes, and victors in the games, and treasure houses erected by cities which had sent gifts to the shrine. Just outside the enclosure, to the east, were the stadium and the hippodrome. The stadium, to which most of the contests seem to have been transferred after the middle of the fifth century B.C., was at first merely a stretch of level ground overlooked from the north by spectators who stood or sat on the slope of the Hill of Cronus. Afterwards an artificial embankment was raised along the opposite side and straight across the ends of a parallelogram, completely enclosing it, so that 40,000 persons or more might find standing-room, but no permanent seats. Modern excavations have allowed exact measurements of the race course, from the starting to the finish line, and it is found to be just 192.27 m., or a trifle over 210 yards in length. No trace remains of the neighboring hippodrome, intended for chariot races, but it is supposed to have resembled the stadium in general plan, although much longer. A gymnasium, to the northwest of the enclosure, belongs to a much later date.