With just a few hours left to go for the lighting of the cauldron at the London Olympic Games 2012 (July 27 to August 12, 2012), The Telegraph takes you through some of the trials and tribulations of past Olympics, and the strength of numbers in this year's Games. Make your Olympics experience a memorable one. Catch the spirit and let the Games begin!

Antiquity

The games began almost 2700 years ago at Olympia in southwest Greece as part of a religious festival. It was held to honour Zeus, the Greek king of the gods. Legend has it that animals would be sacrificed in the middle of the event. The first written account of the games dates back to 776BC. The events were held after every four years.

Sacred truce

In ancient Greece, cities would be at war with each other. Messengers would be dispatched from Elis (the place where the games used to be held) to announce the truce a month before the event. The participants could then travel to Olympia safely.

However, only men could take part in the contests.

Modernity

Campaigning for the modern Olympic Games started in 1852 after German archaeologist Ernst Curtius proposed to start the event, while excavating sites in Olympia. However, it was Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin, a French educationist, who waged a lonely campaign to start the Olympic Games. His vision led to the resurrection of the ancient games. Finally, the first modern Olympics was held in Athens on April 5, 1896. But women could not take part in the event till the Paris 1900 Games because it was considered rude for them to show any part of the body.

Symbol

The five interlocking rings in blue, yellow, black, green and red was originally designed by Coubertin to symbolise the five continents. The two Americas are taken as one and Antarctica is left out.

Darkest hour

The darkest hour in the history of the modern Olympics was perhaps the “Munich Massacre”, when members of Palestinian terror outfit Black September kidnapped and killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches from the Olympic village in Munich, Germany, during the 1972 Games.

Compiled by Aniruddha Biswas, Thirumoy Banerjee and Uttaran Das Gupta