Beach

This long structure once held a giant trireme, the flagship of Antigonus II Gonatas, which he offered as a dedicatory display, to celebrate the victory at Kos against the Ptolemaics in 255 BC.

Oikos translates roughly as "family unit," and this building was meant to connect the "family" of Naxos to the family of Apollo. The Naxians had been building temples here since the 7th century BC, but this ruin primarily dates from the 6th century and later. (If you look closely, you can see a couple of holes in the exposed bedrock within the courtyard. These would have held the original wooden columns of the first building.) The Oikos was most famous for its huge statue of Apollo, nearly 8 meters tall, which tumbled over in a huge storm sometime in the 4th century BC. Although it was later re-erected, time, pirates, and the elements have reduced it to a couple of very worn lumps of brilliant white marble.

A gamma-shaped structure, situated on the southwest side of the Sanctuary of Apollo, in contact with the Propylaea.

One of the three temples of Apollo, built by the Athenians and specifically by Peisistratos around 530-510 BC. The temple was housing a statue of Apollo. It is the oldest of the three temples of Apollo.

in this house they found the headless statues of the owners, Dioskourides and his wife Cleopatra, a couple from Athens; they were erected in 138 BC by Cleopatra after the death of her husband; French archaeologists chose to name the house after her, a decision which increases the number of visitors, but disappoints those of them who believed there was a link between the location and Cleopatra VII, the famous Egyptian queen. Cleopatra is a Greek name meaning "glory of her father".

On the left from the harbor is the Agora of the Competialists (circa 150 BC), members of Roman guilds, mostly freedmen and slaves from Sicily who worked for Italian traders. They worshiped the Lares Competales, the Roman "crossroads" gods; in Greek they were known as Hermaistai, after the god Hermes, protector of merchants and the crossroads.

Agora of the Competialists, an open yard, surrounded by shops, small temples and altars, is the first monument that the visitors see, entering the archaeological site of Delos. Here were the stores of the merchants of the association of Roman citizens and liberalized slaves, who worshiped the gods of the "crossroads", the Lares Competales. However, the market served also other traders, Hermaists and Apolloniasts.

One of most evocative sights of Delos is the 164-foot-long Avenue of the Lions. These are replicas; the originals are in the museum. The five Naxian marble beasts crouch on their haunches, their forelegs stiffly upright, vigilant guardians of the Sacred Lake. They are the survivors of a line of at least nine lions, erected in the second half of the 7th century BC by the Naxians. One, removed in the 17th century, now guards the Arsenal of Venice.

This temple of Apollo is chronologically the second one that was built in the sanctuary. Tough to imagine, but this humble pile of rubble used to be one of the more impressive monuments on the island. Started by the Athenians when they controlled Delos, sometime around 475 BC, it wasn't finished for another hundred years or so.

The monumental gateway leading to the sacred precinct of Apollo. The version that survives (basically just the massive marble platform and a few doric column stumps) was built by the Athenians when they still controlled the island--with tacit approval from the Romans--in the 2nd century BC.

A building erected by traders from the Levant, who worshiped Poseidon, among other gods. (Makes sense for people who made their living from the sea trade.) There is a stone here that describes who built the place and what they were about: TO KOINON BHRYTION POSEIDONIAS - the Poseidon League of Beirut.) Built around the end of the 2nd century BC.

Residential and commercial district. Most structures date from around the second or third century BC. Strolling up the road, you really get a good impression of what the ancient settlement was like. Actually, it's very much like walking the narrow streets of Mykonos. Minus the gay bars, of course.

Large market square surrounded by two stories of shops. There was also a public bath house. Built in the latter 2nd century BC, when the Romans were pretty well settled on the island.

Buildings in which each city made tributes to the god Apollo.

A temple dedicated to ancient Greek goddess Artemis, sister of Apollo.

A temple dedicated to the ancient Greek god Apollo, also being invoked as Pythios (Pythian Apollo), an epithet due to his association with the site of the Delphic oracle.

It is located on the west side of the Sacred Way and was a commercial arcade with many shops. It was constructed by the Greek King Philippos V of Macedonia.

A temple dedicated to ancient Greek goddess Demeter, also being invoked as Thesmophoros.

There are two tombs, the tomb of Argi and Opida and the tomb of Laodiki and Yperochi. They are associated with the worship of the mythical Hyperborean (northernmost) Virgins and the myth of goddess Leto. Hyperborean Virgins were the daughters of Hyperborean people whose origin is unclear.

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Building where people made tributes to the god Apollo.

Excavations have unearthed the spectacular 3rd- to 5th-century mosaics of the Houses of Dionysus.

Built by the Athenians between 425-417 BC, it is the most elaborate of the three temples of Apollo and the official temple of the Athenian Alliance.

Ecclesiasterio (Ecclesia) was the place where the Citizens' Assembly of Delos, took place.

A huge water storage basin, once covered with a roof supported by huge stone arches, which are still standing. This was the primary water source for the theater quarter, and collected runoff from the hills above, channeled into the cistern through culverts. Classical engineering at its best!

Southern Stoa was built by the kings of Pergamon, in Asia Minor, in the early 3rd century BC. It is located on the east side of the Sacred Way and was a commercial arcade with many shops.

A sanctuary dedicated to the Twelve Olympians, the principal gods and goddesses of the Greek pantheon, of ancient Greek mythology, also known as the Dodekatheon (means "Twelve gods" in Greek).