The statue of Zeus at Olympia is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the World that was located in mainland Europe (in the city of Olympia). The statue of Zeus at Olympia is the third wonder of the ancient world. It was erected in the 5th century BC. It was made of gold, wood and ivory, using the so-called chryso-elephant technique. The marble temple of Zeus exceeded in size all the temples that existed at that time.

The Olympic Games, which have been held for 300 years in honor of the god Zeus, were very popular among the people. Despite this, in Greece there was no main temple of Zeus, and only in 470 BC. e. began to collect donations for its construction.

The construction of the temple took about 10 years. But the statue of Zeus did not appear in it immediately. The Greeks decided to invite the famous Athenian sculptor Phidias to create a statue of Zeus. Phidias managed by this time to create two famous statues of Athena ("Athena Promachos" and "Athena Parthenos"). None of his works have survived to this day. By his order, a workshop was built 80 meters from the temple, which exactly corresponded to the size of the temple. There he worked on the statue of Zeus, together with his student Kolot and brother Panen, behind a huge purple curtain and created a statue of the god of thunder in the chryso-elephantine technique. Phidias himself was very picky about the material that was delivered to him. He was especially picky about ivory, from which he created the body of a god. Then, under heavy guard, precious stones and 200 kg of pure gold were brought into the temple at the feet of the Thunderer.