Trips throughout Greece

Athens - Pireaus - Cape Sounion - Poros - Santorini - Zakynthos - Rhodes - Mikonos - Delos - Corinth - Theater of Epidauro - Nafplio - Mycenae - Delphi - Arahova - Ioannina - Vikos Gorges - Meteora - Messenia and Peloponnesus

If you visit Mykonos it is almost compulsory to make an excursion to Delos, as it is 30 min. far in a boat. It is one of the smallest cycladic islands but during the olden ages it was the centre of the archipelago, the main island.

It was considered as the birthplace of Apollo and his sister Artemis. Their pregnant mother called Leto was abandoned by Zeus and was prosecuted by his jealous espouse Hera. Hera had banned that any land allowed the childbirth. So Leto had to refugee in a miserable small islet where she gave birth to twins.
This history made the island sacred and Greeks erected a sanctuary. It was the most important religious centre of Greece, together with Delphi. Many pilgrims came and the island turned into a commercial power due to the strategic situation in the middle of several maritime routes. As a curiosity, because of the sacred condition of this land, the tyrant Pisistrates prohibited any birth or death on it, therefore the pregnants and moribunds were driven to the nearby island of Renia. After the Persian Wars (Greece against Persians), in 478 B.C. Athens gathered several islands and the Attic region in the so-called "Delian League", whose treasures and money was kept in the temple of Apollo in Delos until 454 B.C., when it was changed to the Athens Acropolis. Athens increased the importance of the sanctuary by constructing a new temple of Apollo and organizing a famous festival every 4 years. The sacred character avoided the pillage and the city had many merchants, a harbour, docks, warehouses, shipyards, factories and shops. The island traded with cereals, slaves, wine, wood or oil.
Under the Roman control the island conserved the role and was designed as free port in 166 B.C., which attracted businessmen from every nationality that started to live in the residential districts. At the beginning of the 1st century B.C. the city counted with 25.000 citizens. In 88 B.C. the king Mitridates revealed against Romans, and he sacked the island and sent the inhabitants out as slaves. All this, together with a decrease in pilgrimage and the piracy caused the abandon of Delos. During the Venetian domination of the Cyclades many works of art ended in Rome or Venice. Nowadays only the archaeologists can sleep in the island.

Little vegetation grows here and the top point is mount Kinthos (112 m.). It is clever to be protected against sun (there is no tree) and with comfortable shoes to walk. I suggest to control the time of visit as you can be left in the island if you are late for the boat departure.

We crossed several ruins through the Processions avenue, the route of pilgrims to the temple of Apollo.
The Temenos Apolona consists on the ruins of the three successive temples dedicated to Apollo, the "temple of the Pores" (6th century B.C.), "the Athenians temple" (5th B.C.) and the "Delian Apollo temple" (from 5th to 3rd centuries). If we advance we find the temple of Artemis . At its backside there are fragments of the colossal statue of Naxian Apollo (6th century B.C.), constructed by the Naxians and that the Venetians tried to take home centuries later. The huge fragments visible are the pelvis and the bust. Near this part of the sanctuary they built the altar to Apollo, adorned with ram horns and considered as one of the 7 ancient Wonders of the World. Soon we finished with the sanctuary and entered an urban district, the Lions district. You have to cross the Italian Agora, where there were many merchants from Italy .

In this part we found the most famous spot in the island, the Lions terrace . In front of the sacred lake the well-known marble lions from Naxos are aligned. They were sculpted in the 7th century B.C. imitating the sphinxes from Egyptian temples. There are 5, but they were supposed to be from 9 to 16. One of them was taken by Venetians in the 17th century and it is located in the Arsenal of the city. Although they don't show manes because erosion, they are males.

After passing the sacred lake (nowadays there is no water) we reached the museum. Don't miss, in front of the museum, the sculptures for the sanctuary of Dionysus: two big penises. The Greeks were quite horny and this is another proof. Sex in ancient Greece was very natural and it was represented on numerous works of art such as paintings, sculptures or pottery. It is very amusing and it forms part of our history believe it or not.

The museum is perfect to escape from the hot sun for a while. We saw quickly the exposition, which keeps the works that haven't been sent to Athens.
The path continues towards mount Kinthos, passing near the Hermes house , in a quite good state, with two floors, interior yard and even an artificial grout. It has latrines and a cistern to collect rain water.
We start the ascension and we arrive to a terrace crowded with different sanctuaries for non-Greek gods, built for the numerous immigrants that lived in Delos: the temple of foreign gods, the temple of Syrian gods, the temple of Egyptian gods, the Hera´s temple. On the top of the peak there are rests of a temple dedicated to Zeus and Athena.

The view is exceptional, an it is possible to discern Naxos, Siros, Tinos and Mikonos. You feel the impression of staying in a magic sacred place that dominates the sea and the island. Indeed a tourist that came with us in the boat ascended directly to this spot and spent all the available time sat here and he didn't move until the boat departed to Mykonos.
The descent from the mountain lead us to the district of the Theatre , a residence district that started to exist since the 2nd century B.C., and that was inhabited with many foreigners.

There were many residences of prosper families with inside yards and decorated with nice mosaics. The name of each house is due to the mosaics that were present when discovered: the Dolphins house, the Masks house, the Trident house, the Dionysus house. It is very beautiful the Cleopatra's house (it was the name of the woman that lived in this house) because in the yard you find some beautiful incomplete statues. The theatre had capacity for 5.000 people and from the stands the landscape is superb.

Finally we ended in the quay with the impression that when you saw towards the city, instead of the chaotic amount of ruins of the arrival, the city is alive.