Mykonos and the Sacred Isle of Delos

(Don here) Mykonos is the name of both the Island and its main town. We arrived in port around 8:00 am. Mykonos, the town, has a population about the size of Ashland. It is surprising that such a small place can directly dock a cruise ship.

 

Mykonos is known for its white buildings with turquoise blue shutters.

Our floating hotel

Following breakfast, we disembarked and directly boarded the Delos Express, a smaller boat that took us to Delos Island, about a 40-minute trip. We explored the town of Mykonos when we returned.

 

This was the coldest day on the trip, in the 50s, but beautifully bright and sunny.

Delos Island is a Greek Island in the Aegean sea. It is covered with ruins dating back several millennium before the birth of Christ.

Here we saw some of the oldest artifacts of our entire trip.

A little history will help put what we saw in perspective. The Island of Delos is important in Greek mythology, as it is the birth place of Apollo, the god of light, and of his sister, Artemis, and had temples honoring many Greek gods and some from other countries as well. It has a long history. It was a spiritual center and one of learning as well as a center of commerce. It was most prosperous in late Hellenistic and Roman times, when it was declared a free port and became the financial and trading center of the Mediterranean. By 100 B.C. the island had a population of 30,000. But in 88 B.C., Mithridates, the king of Pontus, attacked the island as part of a revolt against Roman rule. The entire population was killed or sold into slavery.  The Romans partially rebuilt the city, but revival was prevented by continuous pirate raids. Delos was gradually abandoned, leaving extensive, although pirated, remains.

Formal excavation work began in 1872 by the French School of Archaeology, which still continues today. Seeing Delos was like being in a time machine set back thousands of years. Some of the entire town remains complete with the remnants of homes, temples, and places of business, as well as a water and sewage system.
 

This was a temple honoring Dionysus, the god of wine and good times. From Rome to Athens we saw temples honoring him.

House of Dionysus floor mosaic.

Delos is very hot and dry. This is part of an ancient water storage system. It had a roof when the town was alive.

This out door Theater was used for oration and learning. We are sitting in the donor's seats. The trough in front of us would have held water that evaporated and kept us cool. (Sami here, I think the kitty got as much attention as our guide.)

The down spout of a rain gutter.

The Terrace of Lions is almost 3,000 years old

We saw no cats in Italy but everywhere else there were always cats hanging out. This pretty gray boy followed us all around Delos and was super sweet and friendly.

We returned to the town of Mykonos and explored it before we returned to the ship.

Mykonos is known for its white-washed buildings with blue trim. It was quiet when we were there... definitely off-season. During tourist season, it is a vacation hot spot, known for clubs, music, and being gay-friendly.

We were a little too cold to put our feet in, but we had to get a photo of the Aegean Sea.

The sun was setting as we re-boarded the Viking Star. Good bye Mykonos and Delos, we had a wonderful time!