Hippodrome of Olympia Hippodrome of Olympia The Hippodrome of Olympia housed the equestrian contests (horse racing and chariot racing) of the Ancient Olympic Games. According to Pausanias, it was situated to the south of the Stadium and covered a large area about 600 meters long and 200 meters wide. The hippodrome was a wide, flat, open space where the starting point and the finish line were designated with a pole and a second smaller pole called nyssa designated the turning point. Horse and chariot races were one of the most popular and spectacular sports of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece. The equestrian
Covered Hippodrome "uncovered" () Hippodrome. From the 9th to the 11th centuries, it was also the site of one of the Byzantine capital's highest courts, the tribunals of the "judges of the Hippodrome" () and of the "judges of the "velum"" (). Covered Hippodrome The Covered Hippodrome () was a covered courtyard that served as an antechamber to the Great Palace of Constantinople. The French scholar Rodolphe Guilland also equated it with the emperors' private hippodrome. It lay on the southeastern corner of the palace complex, and connected the Palace of Daphne in the north with the later lower palace complex around