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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 29, 2004

Olympic flame lit in Ancient Olympia, torch relay starts

Olympic Flame for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games was lit in Ancient Olympia at 12:45 local time (1045GMT) on Mar. 25 by Greek High Priestess Thalia Prokopiou.


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Olympic Flame for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games was lit in Ancient Olympia at 12:45 local time (1045GMT) on Mar. 25 by Greek High Priestess Thalia Prokopiou.

First torch-bearer Costas Gatsioudis received the flame and olive branch from the high priestess and started the torch relay at 13:00 local time after a peace dove was flown. The first site the torch passed was Pierre de Coubertin Monument, which commemorates the Father of the modern Olympic Games.

Olympic Games was originated in 776 B.C. in ancient Olympia, which is situated in the west of Peloponnese Peninsula about 370 kilometers from Athens, and revived in Athens in 1896 by a group under the leadership of Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin.

The Olympic torch relay is the transfer of the Olympic flame from Ancient Olympia to the stadium of the city hosting the Opening Ceremony of the Games.

During the first leg of the Olympic torch relay, the flame will travel around Peloponnese and the islands of Argosaronikos.

The flame will return next Wednesday on March 31 to the Panathanean Stadium in Athens, the birthplace for the modern Olympic Games in 1896, where it will remain till June 4 when the international journey will start.

It will return to Greece for the second leg, which will take place from July 9 to August 13 for the opening ceremony.

The flame will pass through the country's 54 prefectures, lighting up large cities as well as small border towns. The journey will take it to places of outstanding natural beauty, and also to islands known around the world presenting the country's natural beauty to people from around the globe.

For 43 days, approximately 7,700 Torchbearers will travel across the country, in about 321 hours, carrying the flame by boat, helicopter and car.

It will be the first relay that will traverse the globe and return to where its journey began.

The ceremony was attended by Greek President Costas Stefanopoulos, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, President of Athens 2004 Olympic Organizing Committee (ATHOC) Gianna Angelopoulos Daskalaki and 10,000 spectators.


Greek actress Thalia Prokopiou, playing the role of a priestess, holds the Olympic flame after it was lit in a steel concave mirror near the Temple of Hera in Ancient Olympia where the Olympics were born in 776 B.C. on Thursday, March 25, 2004.














Source: Xinhua


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