News Following the lighting of the Olympic flame on Thursday (21 April) at Olympia, the Rio 2016 Olympic Torch has begun a journey that will take it around the shores of Greece and to the mountains of Switzerland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean for Brazil and its final destination – Rio de Janeiro In GreeceAfter the lighting ceremony at the Temple of Hera in Olympia, the torch relay headed to Pyrgos where a cauldron was lit by the junior world record holder in the pole vault, Emmouil Karalis  The torch then moved on to Amaliada and the archaeological site of Ilida, which played an important part in the history of the ancient Games  Thousands of people welcomed the flame carrying Greek and Brazilian flags  On Friday (22 April) the second day of the relay began from the beautiful island of Zakynthos and visited a series of historic towns in the Peloponnese peninsula and in western Greece including Mesolonghi, where English romantic poet Lord Byron died during the Greek War of Independence Over the weekend the torch relay will visit the island of Corfu and then move north and east, travelling through the region of Macedonia and then to Thessaloniki, Greece's second largest city Next week, the relay will take the torch to the historic town of Marathon, from where the Olympic race takes its name On Tuesday (26 April) the torch will be carried up the magnificent rock of the Acropolis in Athens and visit the Parthenon, the temple of the goddess Athena that has looked down on the Greek capital for nearly 2,500 years In Athens, the torch will be borne by Ibrahim Al-Hussein, a Syrian refugee Al-Hussein, who lost part of his right leg in a bomb attack in 2012, will carry the Olympic flame through the Eleonas refugee and migrant camp The Olympic torch will be formally handed over to Brazil at a ceremony next Wednesday (27 April) at the Panathinaiko Stadium in the Greek capital, the venue for the historic 1896 Olympic Games that launched the modern Olympic movement In SwitzerlandAfter the handover ceremony, the Rio 2016 Olympic torch will leave Greece and travel to Switzerland, for a special ceremony at the United Nations in Geneva on 28 April It will then go on display at the Olympic Museum in nearby Lausanne, home to the International Olympic Committee (IOC)   The Palace of Nations, home to the United Nations in Geneva (Photo: UN)In BrazilThe torch will begin its Brazilian journey in the capital Brasília on 3 May Over the course of the following 95 days, some 12,000 people will carry the torch across the entire country On the evening of 5 August, after visiting every state capital and over 300 towns, the torch will arrive at the climax of the opening ceremony at the Maracanã Stadium, where it will be used to light the Olympic cauldron for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Rio 2016 Olympic Torch Relay to showcase diverse beauty of BrazilThe relay will take the Olympic torch to some of Brazil's most beautiful natural sights (Photos: Ministry of Tourism)