Temple of Hera, Olympia

It is suggested that this dedication by a nearby city would originally have been in honour of the main patron deity at Olympia, Hera, and rededicated to include Zeus, her husband and brother, at a later point—perhaps after 580 BC when control of Olympia had passed from Triphylia to Elis, or in the 5th century BC when the famous Temple of Zeus was built.

It has a peripteros — a colonnaded perimeter — of 6 by 16 columns which were originally wooden[5]: 77 , but site archaeology does not support this theory[7]: 565 The travel writer Pausanias described it in his Description of Greece: The original wooden columns of the temple were gradually replaced with ones made of stone gradually between the mid 6th century BC and the Christian era[5]: 77 .

The temple had a Laconian-style roof; its pediments were decorated with disk acroteria of 2.5 m (8.2 ft) diameter, each made in one single piece (one is on display at the Archaeological Museum of Olympia).

[citation needed] The opisthodomos was also used to store numerous other objects, including many further statues of deities and votive offerings of Zeus and Hera.

Pausanias recounts a number of objects beside the cult statues[clarification needed]: The table was made with ivory and gold, and was sculpted by Colotes.

Accompanying many of the figures were inscriptions in Corinthian (Doric) indicating their identity, some of the text being written boustrophedon in alternating directions.

[9] Set apart from the temple at its eastern side is the Altar of Hera, where the Olympic flame has been lit since 1936 using a parabolic mirror to concentrate the rays of the sun.

[24] The Jasmine Hill Gardens at Wetumpka, Alabama (United States), contained a full-sized replica of the (ruined) Temple of Hera.