Not unlike the Dublin corporation of the 1980s who put an office block on a Viking site and then squared it all by erecting a metal sculpture outside, so too is Athens being accused of corporate vandalism.

Environmental and historical groups have protested to the European Union over plans to build the Olympic rowing venue on the ancient site of the battle of Marathon, some 25 miles north-east of the Greek capital.

The organisers recently unveiled plans to scoop 1.5 million cubic metres of soil from a coastal wetland and forest which is a major wildlife haven and build two artificial lakes nearby. The World Wildlife Fund are concerned that as many as 50 breeds of protected birds will have their habitat destroyed. Poignantly, the marathon has been one of the Olympic's core events since its revival in 1896. As the story goes an Athenian messenger Pheidippides ran 25 miles from the battlefield at Marathon to Athens in 490 BC to announce "Be joyful, we win." Not the wild life.