Delos

On our first clear morning we joined a handful of tourists for a 30 min ferry to Delos island just southwest of Mykonos. Although the island is very small--only 5km long and 1km wide--it contains both an expansive sanctuary to the god Apollo with numerous religious and secular buildings and sculpture, as well as the remains of a large merchant city containing houses adorned with wall paintings and mosaics.  Because Delos attracted Greeks and others from all over the Mediterranean, it is comparable to Delphi, Olympia--even Pompeii--in its size, historical and archaeological importance. For Greek history buffs, Delos gave its name to the so-called 'Delian League', the military alliance Athens formed with its allies at the end of the Persian Wars (post 479 BCE), and the League had a treasury here until it was notoriously transferred to Athens in the mid 5th century BCE. At present, the French School of Archaeology in Athens (www.efa.gr) digs at Delos and has just updated its site guide (in French), should you care to investigate further, plan a trip or brush up on your French (P.S.--the Blue Guide Greece: Aegean Islands has a good overview of the site as well, in English). No trip to the Cyclades would be complete without a stop here, if only to escape the quasi-artificiality of Mykonos for a few hours. After our trip and lazy siesta, we enjoyed a wonderful sunset by the famous Mykonos windmills.