After 78 days of traveling around Greece and the world, the Olympic flame reached the Olympic Stadium and ignited the cauldron of the 28th Olympic Games at the opening ceremony August 13 evening.

Following are some interesting facts and figures regarding the flame journey in Greece and the world:

Javelin thrower Constantinos Gatsioudis lit cauldron at ancient Olympia on March 25, 2004.

Flame arrived at Pathinaiko Stadium, where the cauldron was lit by Greek sprinter Ekaterini Thanou on March 29, 2004.

A total of 11,000 bearers carried the flame in its global relay.

The flame has traveled to five continents, 34 cities including next Olympic Games host city Beijing in 26 countries. And for the first time the flame traveled to the African continent -- Cape Town in South Africa.

The total distance the flame traveled out of Greece is 78,000 km of flight and it was carried by 3,600 torch bearers covering 1,500 km.

While in Greece, 7,000 torch bearers carried the flame through 170 municipalities.

Theme of the international Olympic flame relay is "Pass the Flame, Unite the World". The flame lit up some of the most important monuments of human civilization, and some of the most famous landmarks around the world. The flame's journey through the Great Wall in Chinese capital city of Beijing and the Pyramids in Cairo were some of the most memorable moments in the torch's global travels.

Torch bearers included Nelson Mandela, Pele, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise, Nadia Comaneci, Ronaldo, Ziko, Sergey Bubka and others who can also be characterized as among the most important athletes of each country.

A total of 260 million people watched the travel of the flame.

And the countries the flame covered outside Greece are Australia, Japan, South Korea, China, India, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, the United States, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Bulgaria and Cyprus.

Source: Xinhua