2024 Paris Olympics torch relay stops unveiled
After being lit on Tuesday in Olympia, the ancient home of the Games, the sacred flame for the Paris 2024 Olympics will travel to all four corners of Greece and then, on April 27, arrive in France.
Some of the most popular tourist spots in the nation will be included in the stopovers.
The Olympic torch relay's first two days will take place in the southern Peloponnese peninsula, which is home to Olympia itself as well as the historic citadel of Mycenae, Sparta, the charming village of Nafplio, and castles dating back to the Venetian era in Methoni and Koroni.
The torch will cross the island of Crete on April 18 after making its way to the little island of Kastellorizo, which is close to Turkey.
The next day, it will go to many Aegean islands, including the well-known tourist destination of Santorini, which is known for some of the most breathtaking sunsets on Earth. After that, it will fly to Athens, where it will spend the night at the Acropolis.
The torch will go to Delphi, the location of the most well-known oracle in Greek antiquity, on April 20 after passing through the Olympic Stadium in Athens.
It will start a four-day tour of central and northern Greece the next day, seeing the important archaeological site of Vergina, the towering rock pillars of Meteora, the cities of Volos, Larissa, Thessaloniki, and Ioannina, before flying to the island of Corfu.
The flame will travel southward to Patras and Corinth on April 25 before making its way back to the greater Athens region for its last day on Greek territory.
On April 26, at a ceremony held at the Panathenaic Stadium, which is made entirely of marble and hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, it will be given to the organisers of Paris 2024.
The 89-year-old legendary vocalist Nana Mouskouri has been invited to perform at the event.
The torch will set sail for France on April 27 aboard the three-masted barque Belem, built in the 19th century and launched just after the 1896 Games in Athens.
For almost twenty years, the Belem, a French historical monument, operated trade routes to Brazil, Guyana, and the West Indies.
The final three-mast steel-hulled ship in France is expected to arrive in Marseille on May 8.