

High Priestess Ino Menegaki lights the Olympic flame at the Temple of Hera during the Lighting Ceremony of the Olympic Flame at Ancient Olympia on May 10 in Olympia, Greece. (Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)

The torch, which was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympics in Olympia, Greece, will travel to Great Britain for a 70-day relay covering 8,000 miles across the United Kingdom. The opening ceremony begins in London on July 27.

(Watch the torch lighting ceremony after the jump.)

The Associated Press reported from Ancient Olympia on Thursday:

Actress Ino Menegaki, dressed as a high priestess, stood before the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera, and after an invocation to Apollo, the ancient Greeks’ Sun God, used a mirror to focus the sun’s rays and light a torch.

The triangular torch is designed to highlight the fact that London is hosting the Olympics for the third time. It also staged the games in 1908 and 1948.

Under bright sunny skies there was no need for the backup flame that was used during the final rehearsal for the Olympic torch lighting a day earlier.

After the choreographed ceremony, the priestess handed the flame to the first torchbearer, Greek swimmer and Olympic silver medalist Spyros Gianniotis.

The 32-year-old Gianniotis, the Liverpool-born son of a Greek father and a British mother, was the first of 490 torchbearers who will carry the flame across 1,800 miles of Greek soil before the flame is handed to London organizers on May 17 in Athens.

Gianniotis then handed over the torch to 19-year-old Alex Loukos, born of a Greek father and British mother and raised in the east London borough of Newham next to the Olympic Park.

“It is an unbelievable honor to be a torchbearer ... especially carrying the flame in Olympia and representing the city of London,” Loukos said. “I have grown up with London 2012 — from helping with the bid in Singapore when I was 12, to witnessing the incredible regeneration of my home in East London.”

Read the full story here.

More on the 2012 Olympics from Washington Post Sports:

Cuban-born Danell Leyva is a multi-medal threat for U.S. gymnastics

British archer Alison Williamson to compete at 6th Olympics

Russia’s secret service foiled terrorist plans for 2014 winter games