1 of 9

There are only 140 days to go before the inauguration ceremony for the 2012 London Olympic Games gets underway. With that in mind, the organizers have unveiled images of the venue.

Starting July 27, the event officially known as the XXX Olympiad or the London 2012 Olympic Games will afford the city with a unique distinction - London will become the first city to host the Games, in its modern avatar, thrice.

The Games are set to use a mixture of new venues and existing and historic facilities, in addition to temporary ones. These include such well-known locations as Hyde Park and Horse Guards Parade. Some of the newer facilities will be reused, once the grand event is over, in their original form, while some others will be resized or relocated.

The event's organisers - London 2012 Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) - have confirmed that with 26 Olympic Sports and 20 Paralympic events, this is the equivalent of staging 46 World Championships, simultaneously.

So gargantuan a task will require the help of a workforce of 200,000 people; 6,000 of these will be paid staff, 70,000 will be volunteers and approximately 100,000 will go to contracted individuals, apart from others.

The venues have been segregated into three sections - the Olympic Zone, the River Zone and the Central Zone. Apart from this, there are additional venues outside of Greater London, such as the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, which will host the sailing events.

Check out a slideshow of aerial images of the 2012 London Olympic Games...