Delos is the island that gave the Cyclades their name. It was the birthplace of Artemis and Apollo, so it was understandably very prominent in antiquity. All the other islands in this group cycled around it, geographically and culturally. Over the centuries it was a religious site, then a trading port, until it was sacked twice by 69 BC, and abandoned soon afterwards.
Mykonos was a kind of backwater, until the mid-20th century, when it became a scholarly residence for those researching on Delos. It was only then that it morphed into the vacationer's destination that it is today.
Since I'm getting into a bit of history here...
The Cyclades were first inhabited by about 3200 BC. Since then, they've been controlled by:
the Minoans (2000 BC)
the Myceneans (1300 BC)
the Ionians (750 BC)
the Persians (490 BC)
the Athenians (477 BC)
the Macedonians (318 BC)
the Ptolemies of Egypt (285 BC)
Rhodes...the Rhodians??? Rhodesians??? (197 BC)
the Romans (146 BC)
the Byzantine Empire (330 AD)
the Latins (1204 AD)
the Venetians (1207 AD)
the Greeks (1261 AD)
the Catalans (1304 AD)
the Turks (1344 AD)
the Catalans- again (1389 AD)
the Ottomans (1537 AD)
the Russians (1770 AD)
and finally,
the Greeks! (1821 AD)
Phew!
Can I point out, again, how incredibly gorgeous the water is?
As we left port and headed out into the sea the added depths of the water transformed it from pale turquoise to a rich, silky, endlessly deep blue.
I truly understand now where the names aquamarine and ultramarine come from!
As we rounded the far side of the islands the ruins of the ancient city came into view. Mount Kynthos is in the background. It is the highest point in all the Cyclades, and, I learned, on a clear day all the islands of the Cyclades can be seen from its summit.
We were told very explicitly when we left the boat all the times of the return departures. The island is understandably very closely monitored, and it is forbidden to stay overnight.
Delos reminds me quite a bit of Pompeii, minus the ghastly end. It's kind of a strange thing to walk around the remains of an ancient city like this.
Some of the walls had beautiful detailing- note how the stones were cut to fit into each other just so.
Some needed stabilization.
Actually, check out the difference between how the inside and the outside of the walls were built up. The outside looks like it was intended to be left as exposed stone. The inside was built up with smaller stones, but was plastered over; some of the plaster (or stucco?) still remains on some of the other walls!
Although we did see some stairs within the footprints of some houses, generally only the walls of a single floor height remained, sometimes with columns remaining.
These two columns look as though only the top halves were original; The bottom halves likely are a deliberately different marble to make it clear that they exist only to support the original portions, without misleading the observer.
These columns surrounded an inner courtyard.
This looks like a column base, detailed in such a way that any rain water would drain into the courtyard.
The mosaic courtyard floor was really nice. I tagged on to the end of a tour group for a few moments, and learned about the repetitive wave pattern around the edge. It is called meandros, after the Meandros river in Asia Minor, which wound back and forth quite a bit before reaching the sea. (This is also where we get our word meander.) The ancient Greeks used this pattern quite a bit, and as it became more stylized it turned into the rectilinear version we know of as Greek key.
I kind of wish I took notes when I tagged along with the tour group! It seems to me there was some story behind the animals projecting out from the outer columns. I want to say they acted as modillions to support lower roofs on the sides, but I think I may be making that up.
This house had a nice mosaic floor, too!
Lots of extant plaster, too. With color still remaining- is it fresco? It looks like it was intended to look like finish stone blocks, similar to some of the frescoed facades we saw in Siena!
This one is cute!
We came upon the remains of a large cistern.
There wasn't any water in it, but the air was cooler in there, and we could feel a bit of its coolness just standing along its edge.
It kind of reminded me, although not really, of Piscina Mirabilis that we saw years ago along the Amalfi Coast. That was an immense, Roman-era underground cistern. As it no longer held water, we were allowed to enter, and walk through it. I remember it feeling like an amazing, underground cathedral.
Is this one on Delos from Roman times? I don't remember hearing about the Greeks using arches. The Romans certainly did, but for infrastructure at first, like this!
After the cistern we came upon the theater. Some of seats were still intact! It was fun to stand in the center and imagine it full of an audience.
From the top it was fun to pretend we were watching a performance! And true to form, this theater had a spectacular backdrop.
The large boat docked along the jetty is our ferry. The cluster of columns to the right surround the courtyard we looked at earlier.
The three of us poked our heads into one more house. We managed to go to an arid island with very little shade on a day that hit a high of 42C (108F)! With no breeze. Yeah. Go us. <:\
Yeah, that water was looking really temptingly refreshing about now!
T was ready to find some shade, which was most easily found at the welcome pavilion at the jetty.
AM and I decided to explore a bit more, but they both were set to take the first ferry back to Mykonos.
What we'd seen so far was in the Theater Quarter, south of the ferry jetty. As we made our way north towards the Sanctuary of Apollo and the Sacred Lake, there were lots of interesting things to see. It seemed to be an area of more civic buildings rather than homes.
Lots of fragmented edifices, reconstructed to the extent possible with the remaining pieces...
lots of great details...
Lots of nifty little lizards scurrying around the ruins!
These lions once guarded the Sacred Lake.
I wonder what the honeycomb pieces were?
I wonder what this says?
These little stucco buildings were built for the archaeologists, sometime since the Ecole Francaise D'Athenes started excavating here in 1873. They are clearly not part of the ancient city, but they're kind of cool in their own right as stark geometric objects in the arid landscape.
AM went back to meet T at the welcome pavilion, and took the ferry back.
Afterwards I went to the Archeology Museum and walked around inside where it was cooler. There were some really cool statues on display here. Some reminded me of the things I saw in Naples and Pompei years ago.
When I cooled off a bit I decided to do one of the things I was really looking forward to: climbing Mount Kynthos!
At 367 feet tall, it's not really that much of a climb. Normally. In the oppressive heat, though, I took my time climbing!
I stopped for a moment for a glimpse back, a sip of water, and a wish that I'd brought more with me!
It was a little hazy, so I don't know that I could see all the Cycladic islands, but I had a spectacular view nonetheless!
There was a slight breeze up here, which felt so good as I looked out over the rocky island and the sea beyond!
That's Mykonos across the channel.
If it weren't so hot out I would have loved to have stayed on the summit for a while longer. But it was definitely time for me to head back to the ferry home.
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