Olympic flame heads for Beijing

The Panathenian Stadium in Athens is seen in this picture taken on March 30. [Sina.com]

President of Greece Karolos Papoulias attended the ceremony in the company of his guards.

The Panathenian Stadium was rebuit around 300 BC, used for in ancient times to host the athletic portion of the Panathenaic Games in honour of the Goddess Athena.

During classical times the stadium had wooden seating. It was remade in marble by the archon Lycurgus in 329 BC and was enlarged and renovated by Herodes Atticus in 140 AD, to a seated capacity of 50,000.

It is located in downtown Athens, east of the National Gardens and the Zappeion Exhibition Hall, west of the Pankrati residential district and between the twin pine-covered hills of Ardettos and Agra.

In more recent years this stadium has been often used to honour the homecoming of victorious Greek athletes, most notably the Greek national football team after its victory at the 2004 European Football Championship and also the opening ceremony of the World Athletics Championships in 1997, on a concept by composer Vangelis Papathanasiou.

In the 2004 Olympic Games, the Panathinaiko Stadium hosted the archery competition, and the finish of the Marathon. The stadium was featured on all of the Summer Olympic medals introduced in the 2004 Games.

A welcome ceremony will be held on Monday at Tian'anmen Square, heart of the host city of the 2008 Olympic Games.

After the Greek leg, the Beijing Olympic torch relay covers three parts, the relay outside the mainland of China, in the mainland of China and Mt. Qomolangma expedition.

The Olympic flame will visit 21 cities outside mainland of China across five continents and travel across 113 cities and regions of all 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in China until it returns to Beijing on August 6 to wrap up the three-day relay in the capital.