Mount Olympus

Stop for a moment and listen. Up here, the wind moves through black pine and fir with a low, steady rush, like distant surf. The air is cool even in summer, and it smells of resin and warm stone. Under your boots, loose limestone shifts and clicks. Somewhere above you, hidden behind cloud more often than not, rise the highest peaks in Greece. This is Mount Olympus, the mountain the ancient Greeks chose as the home of their gods.

From the side of Elassona, in the region of Thessaly, you approach the massif from the west and south. Most visitors arrive from the coast, through the town of Litochoro on the eastern flank. This side feels different. It is quieter, more pastoral, a landscape of sheep tracks, stone villages and long grassy slopes. Shepherds have moved their flocks across these uplands for generations. The mountain here looks less like a postcard and more like a working landscape.

Olympus is not a single summit. It is a cluster of peaks, ridges and deep gorges. The highest point is called Mytikas, a Greek word that means "nose". It stands at nearly three thousand metres above the sea. Close beside it rise other crowns of rock, among them Stefani, a sharp curved wall that locals call the Throne of Zeus. On a clear day, these summits can be seen from far across the plains and the Aegean Sea.

According to ancient myth, the twelve great gods lived on these heights. Zeus ruled from the summit, and the other gods gathered in halls hidden among the clouds. Legend has it that the gates of Olympus were made of cloud, guarded by the Seasons. The poet Homer describes the home of the gods as a place untouched by wind, rain or snow. Anyone who has climbed here in a storm knows that the real mountain is far less gentle.

Here is something many visitors miss. For thousands of years, people worshipped this mountain, but for most of that time, nobody is known to have stood on its highest point. The first recorded ascent of Mytikas came only in 1913. A local hunter and guide named Christos Kakkalos led two Swiss travellers, the photographer Frédéric Boissonnas and the writer Daniel Baud-Bovy, to the top. The home of the gods waited a very long time for human footsteps.

At the foot of the eastern slopes lies ancient Dion, a sacred city of the Macedonians. Its name is connected to Zeus himself. Kings held festivals and sacrifices there, in the shadow of the mountain. Archaeologists have uncovered temples, theatres and mosaics in the marshy ground below. So the mountain was never only a myth. It was a real presence in daily religion, looming over the people who prayed to it.

In 1938, Olympus became the first national park in Greece. Later, the area was also recognised by UNESCO as a biosphere reserve. This protection matters, because the mountain holds an unusual mix of life. Its height creates many climate zones stacked one above another. Within a few hours of walking, you can pass from Mediterranean scrub to beech and pine forest, and finally to bare alpine rock.

The plant life is the second great surprise of Olympus. Botanists have recorded well over a thousand plant species on the massif. Some grow nowhere else in the world. One rare flower, Jankaea heldreichii, clings to shaded cliffs and is often described as a survivor from a much older era of European plants. In late spring and early summer, the high meadows fill with colour. Look closely at the cracks in the rocks, and not only at the views.

Animals live here too, though they are shy. Chamois, a nimble mountain goat-antelope, move across the steep upper slopes. Birds of prey circle over the ridges, riding the warm air that rises from the valleys. Lower down, roe deer and wild boar keep to the forest. You will probably hear more than you see. Listen for the clatter of falling stones, or the sharp call of a bird above the cliffs.

Weather rules everything on Olympus. Clouds can build around the summits in the early afternoon, even on a bright morning. Snow often lingers in the high gullies well into the summer. Temperatures drop quickly as you climb. Mountain refuges sit on the main routes, giving hikers a bed, a hot meal and shelter. The people who run them know the mountain well, and their advice is worth more than any map.

The Elassona side gives you a sense of how ordinary people lived beside a legend. Small villages cling to the lower slopes. Their houses are built of local stone, and their churches are modest and old. In the mornings, you may hear sheep bells drifting across the hillsides. For the people here, Olympus was not only the home of the gods. It was pasture, firewood, water and weather, a neighbour that shaped every season of the year.

It is worth thinking about why the Greeks placed their gods here. From the plains of Thessaly and the coast of Macedonia, this mountain fills the sky. Its summit is often hidden in cloud, so the top seems to belong to another world. Storms gather on its peaks and roll down toward the valleys. To an ancient farmer, thunder from Olympus would have sounded very much like the voice of Zeus.

Today, Olympus draws hikers, climbers, botanists and people who simply want to stand somewhere old and high. You do not need to reach the summit to feel its scale. Even on the lower trails, the mountain shows its layers: forest, cliff, meadow and sky. Take your time. Walk slowly, drink often, and turn around now and then to look back at the ground you have covered.

Before you move on, look up once more toward the peaks. Notice how the light falls on the bare grey rock, and how quickly the clouds change shape around it. Feel the cool air on your face and the uneven stones beneath your feet. Thousands of years of stories rest on this mountain... but right now, it is simply wind, stone and silence. And for a few minutes, you are part of it.