 small low island with an area of 3,43 square kilometres, lying to the south-west of Mykonos. On the few surviving columns and the pieces fallen from the structures of Delos, the remains of its glorious past live on. This small island, rocky and barren, supported a flourishing economy and a thriving culture for centuries. A majority of the ancients chose it as the place to set the myth of the birth of Apollo and this was undoubtedly connected to the fact that on Delos everything was flooded with light. The ruined city-state is one total embrace of light.
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 hoosen by the ancients as their religious centre, the small island gradually became covered with temples, mansions, markets, stadiums and shops: a large city which was not only a religious, but also a cultural and commercial centre. The centuries rolled by. The period of its greatest glory was followed by inevitable decline -wars, ruin and destruction. |
 oday the island is a piece of land covered with ruins: fallen columns, sections of famous mosaics, a stadium, tiers of seats from a theatre, wrestling schools. Among this mass of ruins, five marble lions in a row still stand. These were the guardians of the sacred lake. They still gaze out to the east, waiting for the rising of the sun, the sun of Apollo its god. |
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