View of Rhenia, Rhenia, Delos

Delos · Rhenia · Ρήνεια

Rhenia

Rhenia lies less than a kilometre west of Delos, an empty island of about 13.9 km² made of two hills of 136 m joined by an isthmus only some 60 m wide. In antiquity it was where Delos sent everything that could not touch sacred ground: the dead, the dying and women about to give birth. Today no one lives there, it is a protected Natura 2000 area, and in summer cruise boats from Mykonos anchor in its coves so that visitors to Delos can swim.

Where to stay

The bigger, empty island across the strait: Apollo's land, the graveyard of Delos and today its swimming beach

The story of Rhenia

Around 530 BC Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, conquered Rhenia and gave it to Apollo; Thucydides says he bound it to Delos with a chain. When Athens purified Delos in 426 BC, the graves dug up on Delos were reburied in a pit on Rhenia, and from then on births and deaths had to happen here, across the water. The southern half of the island became the cemetery of Delos, and its Hellenistic gravestones are still scattered over the hillside.

For centuries it was also, confusingly, the 'big' Delos: until 1940 the sacred island was officially called Mikra Dilos, 'little Delos', and the name Delos on its own often meant Rhenia.

Good to know

Before you go to Rhenia

Getting there

There is no public boat. Rhenia is reached on Delos and Rhenia cruises from Mykonos, or by private boat.

When to go

Midday, for a swim after a morning on the site.

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