Earlier this week, the Olympic flame arrived in France ahead of the Paris Summer Olympics. The torch relay will span 11 weeks, with 10,000 torch bearers carrying it through more than 450 towns all across the country. It’ll arrive in Paris for the opening ceremony on July 26 and will be used to light the Olympic cauldron. The flame was lit during a ceremony in Olympia, Greece, using the sun’s rays and a parabolic mirror. In ancient Greek mythology, fire had divine connotations and sacred fires were present at many sanctuaries, including at the ancient Olympic games. The first time a symbolic flame appeared at the Summer Olympic Games was at the 1928 games in Amsterdam. The Olympic torch relay was introduced at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. The torch has been transported in many different ways over the years, including by boat, Native American canoe, camel, and even by radio transmission! In the event the flame goes out along the way, there are multiple copies of the flame are transported with the relay or kept in backup locations, so the torch or cauldron can be relit with the same fire from the Olympia lighting ceremony. Learn more here.