Olympic Rebirth
Greece's ancient Olympia — the heart of the Olympic Games and birthplace of Olympic ideals — is one of the best-known archaeological sites in the world. With its famous Temple of Zeus on the lower southwest slope of Kronios hill, ancient Olympia's past as one of the most important religious and athletic centers is still apparent. The hills around the archaeological site are covered by rich vegetation, mainly Aleppo pine forest, creating a beautiful and tranquil environment. Agricultural fields that include annual crops, olive groves and vineyards cover most of the area around Olympia.
Pierre de Coulbertin's monument view after the restoration on the area (February 2008)
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Today Olympia is visited by thousands of people every year who come to see the site and the monuments where the Olympic Games took place, including the ancient stadium, and to admire the precious exhibits in the archaeological museums. Every four years in a ceremony held on the site, the Olympic Torch is lit before being carried to the site where the modern Olympic Games will be held.
Given this historic and cultural relevance, the disaster caused by a raging wildfire in Olympia on Aug. 26, 2007, created a sensation not only in Greece but around the world.
In Greece, the fire season of 2007 was the worst in recent history, setting new records in damages and loss of life. Seventy-eight people — mostly civilians — lost their lives. More than 270,000 hectares of vegetation burned, more than 110 villages were affected directly by the firefronts, and more than 3,000 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged.
The worst fires occurred in Peloponnese over just five days, starting on Aug. 23. The worst day was Aug. 24, when drought, high air temperature and low relative humidity combined with a strong northeast wind. The spread of the fires continued on Aug. 25, when the firefighting forces became overwhelmed by the fierceness of the fires and could do little to control the blazes. Among the fires that expanded rapidly that day were two that had started Aug. 24 near the villages of Valmi and Klindia, north of Olympia, and would soon merge into one.
High fire danger conditions continued on Aug. 26 as the wind changed direction and started blowing from the northwest. The Valmi-Klindia Fire started spreading southeast and moved quickly and aggressively toward Olympia, burning a mix of pine stands and agricultural fields. Fine fuels in the latter made the fire's spread very rapid. This quick spread left no time for the firefighting forces to regroup and to defend the site in a coordinated way.
The fire first hit the outskirts of the town of Olympia, where visitors to the ancient site had found refuge. Because buildings in Greece are built mainly with non-flammable materials, there was never any real threat to lives, and only a few homes were damaged. Many TV reporting crews and photographers were already in Olympia documenting the fire spread and the lack of significant firefighting resources at that moment.
As the fire entered the archaeological site, additional ground resources arrived, including a specialized firefighting tank. Helicopters and amphibian Canadair aircrafts also began making water drops from the air. The firefighters, the aerial resources and the personnel of the local Authority of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities minimized the damage to buildings and other historic elements. Their effort also resulted in stopping the fire at the site's southern edge, taking advantage of the Alfios River and agricultural fields there. However, the site had already been damaged significantly. A few secondary buildings and most of the vegetation in the area burned, but the archaeological museums and main buildings of the International Olympic Academy were not damaged.
The importance of the Olympia site and the high potential for secondary damages made restoration essential. Landscape restoration was characterized as a national goal because of the strict timetable imposed by the March 24, 2008, lighting of the Olympic Flame for the Beijing Olympic Games. This urgency led the government to assign the study for site restoration to the National Agricultural Research Foundation (NAGREF), which is supervised by the Hellenic Ministry of Agriculture & Food. More specifically, the task was assigned to NAGREF's Institute of Mediterranean Forest Ecosystems & Forest Products Technology (IMFE&FPT), aided by a few external experts.
The main objective was to restore the archaeological site and its natural beauty. The landscape would be restored with immediate measures to protect soil on the slopes against erosion, prevent flooding of flat areas and rehabilitate the vegetation through plant establishment. It was considered a priority to introduce a variety of tree and shrub species that existed in the ancient oak forest to enhance the resistance of the forest against fires and increase plant biodiversity.
The restoration project focused on the hilly area (Kronios, Zouni, Kalosaka and Inomaos Hills) that surround the archaeological site and cover about 60 hectares. Particular emphasis was given to maintenance of the geomorphology of the Kronios Hill.
Soil erosion and flood mitigation measures. Log erosion barriers were placed along the contours because wood was considered to be the appropriate material for fulfilling the archaeological, historical, aesthetic, ecological, environmental and protective requirements of the area. They were intended to shorten the length of the slopes, increase the surface roughness and soil infiltration rates, trap surface runoff and sediment, and improve the location behind the log barriers for the recovery of vegetation.
The log erosion barriers, constructed using the trunks of burned Aleppo pine and cypress trees, were fixed parallel to the contours of the slopes of the hills. The log barriers were secured on wooden stakes without any metal supports, following restrictions imposed by the Hellenic Central Archaeological Council. All the work was done manually to minimize disturbance on the site. Total length of the constructed log lines was about 115,000 meters.
Gully and small stream channel checkdams. Severe erosion and landslides in the past had formed a number of gully and small stream channels in the area's hills. After the fire, these sites could not be protected from further deterioration by log erosion barriers. Instead, checkdams made of logs were constructed into these channels with the aim to prevent them from deepening and widening. They also would trap sediment or land masses moving down the slopes, decreasing the risk of new landslides. After site stabilization, the trapped sediment behind the checkdams can be used for planting trees or shrubs.
Log-made checkdams were built perpendicularly to the direction of the channels. Twenty-five checkdams were constructed, mainly on the south slope of Kronios Hill facing the ancient stadium where there had been a landslide after a fire in 1932. The checkdams would prevent any new massive soil movement that would cover the stadium.
Mediterranean pine forests are distinguished from other ecosystems due to the considerable hosted plant and animal biodiversity, particularly their adaptation to wildfires.
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