Δήλος · An island that is one great sanctuary: three temples to Apollo, the lions of the Naxians and the gods of every trader who landed here
Walk a marble Sacred Way to three temples of Apollo side by side, meet the lions of the Naxians above a dry lake, climb past Isis and Serapis to Zeus on Mount Kynthos and step into houses whose mosaic floors are still in place. A day trip from Mykonos: no one may sleep here.
Greetings from Delos
Delos
The boat from Mykonos took half an hour and then there was nothing but stone: a marble street, three temples to the same god in a row, a row of lean marble lions staring at a lake that isn't there any more. We climbed the hill where Zeus had his temple and saw the islands standing round us in a ring. In the houses by the theatre the floors are still covered in mosaics, dolphins and a god on a wild cat. At three the boat took us back. No one is allowed to stay. That feels right.
Hour by hour
Breakfast in the old port of Mykonos, the morning boat, the temples before the heat, the hill of the foreign gods, the houses of the free port and the evening back in Chora.
Buy pies, water and something sweet in Chora: there is next to nothing to eat on Delos.
Take the first boat from the pier past the Town Hall and watch Delos and Rhenia grow out of the sea.
Walk the Sacred Way past the Stoa of Philip V to the three temples of Apollo and the base of the Naxian Colossus.
Go north to the Terrace of the Lions and the dry Sacred Lake, with the Letoon beside it.
Climb past the Temple of Isis to the summit for the view over the ring of the Cyclades.
Cool off in the museum with the original lions, then have a cold drink at the café beside it.
Walk down through the Theatre Quarter to the dolphins, the masks and the theatre before the boat back.
Dinner on the old-port waterfront, looking west to where you spent the day.
Where to stay
Mykonos Chora
Terra Maria Hotel · Small town hotel · €€€
Little Venice, Mykonos Chora
Bluetopia Suites · Luxury suites · €€€€
Only on Delos
What makes Delos different from every other ancient site in Greece.
In the heart of the sanctuary three temples of Apollo stand side by side: a little one of poros stone, the Temple of the Athenians with its seven statues and the great Temple of the Delians, begun with the League's money around 476 BC, stalled for some 150 years when the treasury left for Athens, and never finished. Its columns still have only their guide fluting.
The lean marble beasts the Naxians lined up above the Sacred Lake around 600 BC may well be lionesses. The ones on the terrace are copies; the originals are in the museum, and one has stood at the land gate of the Venice Arsenale since 1716, wearing a head carved for it there.
Told by an oracle to double the size of Apollo's cube-shaped altar, the Delians found that doubling each side gave a block eight times bigger. They asked Plato, who answered that the god wanted the Greeks to study geometry. Doubling the cube with ruler and compass, the 'Delian problem', was finally proved impossible in 1837.
In the free port, merchants brought their own gods with them: three sanctuaries of Serapis and a Temple of Isis for the Egyptians, a sanctuary with its own small theatre for Hadad and Atargatis of Syria, and inscriptions of Samaritans from Mount Gerizim. A building by the sea is held by many to be one of the oldest synagogues known outside Palestine.
“She cast both her arms about a palm tree and kneeled on the soft meadow, while the earth laughed for joy beneath.”
Towns & villages
Where pilgrims, merchants and today's day-trippers all stepped ashore
The boats from Mykonos tie up in the same sheltered bay on the west coast that served the ancient sanctuary. In antiquity it was the Sacred Harbour, kept for pilgrims and religious missions, while the cargo ships of the Hellenistic and Roman free port used the commercial quays further south. From the jetty you walk straight into the past: the ticket office, then the paved square of the Agora of the Competaliasts and the start of the Sacred Way, all within a couple of minutes.
Three temples to one god side by side, a colossus felled by a bronze palm, and a temple that took two centuries and was never finished
The heart of Delos is a walled precinct a short way up the Sacred Way from the harbour, crowded with more than a thousand years of offerings to Apollo. Its centre is unique in Greece: three temples to the same god standing in a row, a small one of poros stone, the marble Temple of the Athenians and the big Doric Temple of the Delians. Around them lie the oikos of the Naxians, the base and broken limbs of their colossal statue, a row of treasuries, long stoas given by Hellenistic kings and the altar Apollo was said to have built with his own hands.
Things to do
Culture
Be on the first boat and walk the paved processional way between the stoas to the temples of Apollo before the groups catch up.
From the jetty
Culture
Find the base of the Naxian Colossus beside the oikos of the Naxians and the archaic inscription claiming statue and base are one stone, then the broken torso by the Artemision.
Sanctuary of Apollo
Hike
Take the ancient stepped path past the Temple of Isis and the granite-roofed cave to the summit, 113 m up, for the view of the islands standing round Delos in their ring.
East of the site
Good to know
Delos is small, bare and empty of people, and the whole of it is one open-air sanctuary. Myth made it the floating rock where Leto, hounded by Hera, at last gave birth to Artemis and Apollo, and from then on the island was the god's. Pilgrims, kings and cities filled it with temples, treasuries, statues and stoas for more than a thousand years; Athens ran it, purified it and fought over it; in the 2nd century BC it became a free port where Italians, Syrians, Egyptians and many others built their own sanctuaries next to Apollo's. Then two sacks in twenty years emptied it. What is left covers the whole island: a sacred precinct, a lake without water, a hill of foreign gods and a town of mosaic floors. Nobody may stay the night, so you come by boat from Mykonos, sleep there, and give Delos the best hours of one day.
When to go
April, May, June, September and October, when the sun is bearable and wild flowers cover the ruins in spring. In July and August take the first boat or the afternoon boat, never the midday heat. There are no scheduled boats from December to March.
How long
The return boats give you about three hours on the island: enough for the sanctuary, the lions, the museum and either Kynthos or the Theatre Quarter. Come back on a second day if you want both, or join a guided tour.
Respect the site
Stay on the paths, don't climb on walls or sit on the monuments, and leave every stone and shard where it lies: Delos is protected from shore to shore.
Getting there
Day trip only: a 30-minute boat from the old port of Mykonos, from April to November. Nobody may stay overnight.
Flights & ferries
A hilltop village of the 3rd millennium BC, Mycenaean treasures under a temple, a Naxian age of lions and giants, an Athenian century of treasure and purity, independence under kings, a Roman free port, two sacks and a long emptiness, until the French spades arrived.
Walk through the storyLast updated