It’s one of the oldest and most important sanctuaries in Athens. In the beginning of the 6th century B.C. there used to be another temple dedicated to Zeus in its place, but in 515 B.C. the tyrant Peisistratos the Younger decided to build a bigger one - similar to the temples that had been erected in Asia Minor during that same period. The plan was never realized and it seems to have been abandoned at a very early stage, possibly due to the establishment of democracy in the city of Athens and the political reform that ensued. In all probability the Athenians did not want to go through with a project that would inevitably be associated with tyranny. Later on, during the period of the Medeans, part of the construction material was incorporated in the fortification walls of Athens, built by Themistocles. Archaeologists have discovered some huge flywheels (two and a half meters wide) that were said to have come from that first attempt to erect the sanctuary. It was obviously going to be quite grand, meant to overshadow all others. The project was finally given the go-ahead many centuries later with the financial backing of Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the king of Syria (175 - 163 B.C), in an attempt to make a place for himself in the Greek history. The new plans were drawn up by the Roman architect Cossutius but unfortunately Antiochus died before the temple was finished. Vitruvius mentions that it was an open air construction (i.e. with no roof), which explains its size and the architectural restrictions that had to be overcome when dealing with such a large scale plan. It is said that during the sack of Athens, lead by the Roman general Sulla in 86 B.C., many columns were snatched from the sanctuary and taken to Rome to be used in the temple of Zeus in the Capitolium. All thoughts of the monument were abandoned for two more years until Hadrian, a Roman Emperor and a great lover of Greece, took it upon himself to see it through. The project was completed in five years time and the Emperor himself was present at the inauguration ceremony. The temple was of Corinthian order, tripteral octastyle on the two narrow sides, and dipteral eikosastyle on the long sides, with a colossal chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Zeus in the cella. There was also a statue of Hadrian himself, worshiped as a god by the Athenians. He also financed the big rectangular precinct outside, which is preserved in excellent condition. The temple was surrounded by 104 Corinthian columns in total, only 13 of which survived the test of time. Unfortunately one of them fell and broke in tiny little pieces after a violent storm in 1852. The temple itself collapsed in the late Archaic period, possibly due to the great earthquakes in the 4th and the 5th century A.D. During the Middle Ages the locals used to melt the marbles of the sanctuary in the fire in order to prepare whitewash. In the last years of the Turkish domination, a monk went and set up his cell right on the epistyle. Its remains – still visible in the days of King Otto - were depicted in the gravures of many traveling artists.