The 12-m (40-ft) Statue of Zeus (mid-5th century BC) by the Greek sculptorPhidias was the central feature of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, Greece.

Thestatue of Olympian Zeus was erected at Olympia, in the Peloponnesus of Greece, bythe great sculptor Phidias in the 5th century BC. It was a towering structureof ivory and gold, 40 feet high, majestic and beautiful.

After about 10 centuriesof existence the statue was destroyed. Our only idea of it is gained from coins ofElis, which are thought to bear copies of the original.

The ivory and gold statueof the Olympian Zeus was perhaps the greatest masterpiece of the sculptor Phidias.It stood in a shrine on the Olympian plain until the early Middle Ages.