Delos

Today was another history lesson revisited with a trip to the archaeological site of Delos Island; about 40 minutes from Mykonos. We had been warned to take a hat because there is no shade on Delos; words worth taking note of. The tallest piece of vegetation was a palm tree; other plants consisted grasses and ‘scrub’.

Delos is famous as the sanctuary dedicated to Apollo and his sister Artemis, with the Hellenistic city around it. Today it is a barren archaeological site ‘littered’ with ancient ruins. It is protected under a UNESCO World Heritage agreement.

One of the photos selected for this post is of the water cisterns that drew water from the nearby theatre.

Our guide was excellent and we all came away a lot more informed than we did by the end of our fourth form history lessons!

It is hard to imagine a ‘culture’ comprising of up to 30,000 people thriving here since 1400 BC. Harder still to imagine why Mithradates would want to destroy it in 88BC – but that’s another history lesson!

The Delos museum houses many of the original items archaeologists have excavated while others lie in museums in London and other places.