On the other side of the road running through the Golden Gate of the ancient city, is a plain commanded by the huge Olympeion field. This include a platea with a large temple of Olympian Zeus, plus other areas whose nature is still under investigation from scholars. These include also a sanctuary, including remains of a paved square, a complex sacellum ("holy enclosure") and a tholos.
This, after another gate, is followed by a sanctuary of chtonic deities, an archaic sanctuary, the so called colimbetra (where was a still unknown gate) and the tip of the spur where the sanctuary is located, with the temple of Vulcan.
The Olympeion complex's main attraction is the huge temple of Olympian Zeus, which was described with enthusiastic words by Diodorus Siculus and mentioned by Polybius[3]. Today is reduced in ruins due to destructions begun in the very antiquity and continued through the 18th century, when the temple was used as a stone quarry for the port of Porto Empedocle.
Near the south-western corner of the temples is a small edifice (12,45 x 5,90 m) with two naves and a deep pronaos, a double entrance and what has been identified as an altar. Its dating is controversial, though scholars have assigned to the archaic age due to discover of numerous 6th century BC vases.
Also archaic is another sacellum, which later was replaced by a classical edifice. These are followed by the scanty remains of a temple (called "Tempio L") dating to the mid-5th century BC, measuring 41.8 x 20.20 meters, to which, in the 3rd century BC, a Hellenistic entablature was added.