The Olympic flame will be placed in an urn and brought to the ancient stadium by Hestiada (the priestess keeper of the fire), where it is handed over by the high priestess to a torchbearer along with an olive branch - a universal symbol of peace.

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It will then travel throughout Greece during an 11-day relay, where more than 550 torchbearers will carry the flame.

The Olympic flame will arrive in Athens on Friday 26 April where the handover ceremony to the Paris 2024 Organising Committee will take place at the Panathenaic Stadium in France.