Travel Gem #20: A Must Visit to Delos Archaeological Site near Mykonos / 米科諾斯島附近的德洛斯考古遺址

Hidden beneath this beautiful island of Mykonos is the Delos archaeological site.  

You learn so much history about Greece by spending a day exploring the archaeological site and visiting the museum.

Delos is a tiny island of less than 7 square kilometers that is wedged between Rineia Island and Mykonos.    

This is one of the most important archaeological sites in the Greece island as it gives us a big glimpse of what life was like in ancient Greek in Delos.

Go to Delos by Ferry

The only way to get to the island of Delos is by ferry.

There is a daily ferry service that leaves Mykonos Chora.  There are daily organized excursion tours and private boat charters to visit the site, but Ray and I like to spend the whole day there without the restraints of time.   You can follow their ferry schedule to leave on the earliest ferry and come back to Mykonos on the last ferry ride from Delos.

It is a short 30 minutes pleasant ride.

Delos was one of the largest port in ancient Greece.  

You can tell that there was quite a large Greek settlement here dating all the way back to 600 B.C.  Athens at that time established the Delian League treasury on Delos.  As a result, merchants, sailors and bankers all over Mediterranean transformed Delos into an important business commercial center.  The city became rich and wealthy until 2nd Century B.C. when the Romans took over the island.

When the Romans took over, the trade routes did not cross over to this island therefore Delos declined and became deserted.  Eventually it became part of the slave trade and was turned into slave markets.  

Delos remained as a big port only.

In the excavation, the archaeologists dated the settlement to 600 B.C.   

The excavation was done by the French School of Athens in late 1800.  The work still continues today as this is a mega project that is comparable to the famous Delphi and Olympia.

As you step out and walk through the whole archaeological site, you are taken back to time and history of stories of Greek myths that we used to study in school.  This is a very unique experience for me.  All of a sudden, my history text books became very real in front of me as I saw the ancient artifacts lying around.

This was believed to be the birth place of Apollo and Artemis.  

In the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and the twin sister of Apollo.  

Today we see the remains of their temple where people used to offer sacrifices to worship these goddesses.

 

You  see the place of altar in the middle.

Take a look at the construction of the wall.  It is like a sandwich with nice polished stones on both sides filing with smaller pieces of rough stones in between.

Here you see a metal clip  stablizing the joints of the floor.

Delos home is a place for the wealthy people 

When you look at the remains of the site, you see lavish homes with marble pillars and floors decorated with expensive decorative mosaics.  

Some of these homes are called the House of Dionysos, the House of the Dolphis, Cleopetra's House and the House of Masks as these images & statues are found in their homes.   

Look at these ivory statues!  They have been quite preserved all these years. 

Wouldn't you love to have a home like this one?

Terrace of the Lions on the Sacred Way

In all ancient Greek cities, there is a sacred way that leads towards the Apollo Temple.  In Delos, you see the famous terrace of marble lions on both sides of the road.  These lions standing on the site are replicas.

The original marble lions are housed in the Delos Museum.

Be sure to go into the museum to have a close look at them.   They date back to 5th Century B.C. These are truly originals to be protected from further erosion.

You must visit the Delos museum as there are lots of interesting artefacts housed in here.

A wall painting showing a servant boy preparing the table for Dionysus religious grape meal.  Notice how the artist skillfully portrays the glass wares.

 Beautiful Jewelleries

Before you leave, visit the Delos Restored Theatre

 The ancient Theatre of Delos is one of the few that were completely built in marble. The construction began around 314 B.C.  The work continued on for 70 years and in 250 B.C. the theatre was used holding a capcity of about 6,500 spectators.  

Thank you for joining me today to visit Ancient Delos.

We took the last ferry back to Mykonos

We spent 6 hours at Delos because we didn't join any tour groups.  If you join tour groups, the visit usually lasts for half a day 3 hours only.

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I love to hear from you,

Rosa

Chinese Translation: 中文翻譯

隐藏在美丽的米科诺斯岛後边是Delos小岛考古遗址。

您可以花一整天时间来探索考古遗址，并参观博物馆，了解希腊的文明史。

德洛斯是一个小於7平方公里的小岛，嵌在里尼亚岛(Rineia)和米科诺斯岛(Mykonos)之间。这是希腊岛上最重要的考古遗址之一，因为它给了我们一个很大的视窗。

乘渡轮去德洛斯Delos去德洛斯岛的唯一方法是乘渡轮。每天有渡轮服务从米科诺斯群岛开出。每天有游旅团团和私人租船，但雷子和我喜欢花一整天都在那里，没有时间的限制。您可以按照他们的渡轮时间表坐最早的渡轮，并从德洛斯乘最後一班渡轮返回米科诺斯岛。 

这是一个短暂的30分钟愉快的船程。德洛斯是古希腊最大的港口之一。

这里有一个很大的希腊定居点，可以追溯到600B.C.当时雅典在德洛斯建立了德利安联盟财政部。结果，地中海的商人，水手和银行家将德洛斯变成了一个重要的商业商业中心。这个城市变得富有，直到二世纪罗马人接管小岛。。

当罗马人接管时，贸易路线再没有越过这个岛屿，所以德洛斯没落了，日渐荒废。最终成为奴隶贸易的一部分，变成奴隶市场。

德洛斯仍然是一个大港口。在考古挖掘过程中，考古学家将定居点定於600B.C.那次挖掘工作是由雅典的法国雅典学院於1800年末完成的。考古挖掘工作今天仍在继续，因为这是一个与德尔菲（Delphi）和奥林匹亚(Olympia)相等的大型项目。

当你走进考古遗址区，马上回到以前在学校学的希腊神话和历史当中。这对我来说是非常独特。突然之间，历史教科书在我面前变得非常真实，因为我看到古老的文物就在身旁。这被认为是阿波罗Apollo 和阿特米斯Artemis的诞生地。 

在希腊神话的古典时期，阿特米斯是宙斯的女儿，是阿波罗的双胞胎姐妹。今天我们看到他们的寺庙的遗址，人们曾经献祭来崇拜这些神明。中间还可看到祭坛的地方。再看看石墙的建设。它就像一个三明治，两边都有漂亮整齐的石块，中间是较小的粗糙石块。

在这里，你看到一个金属夹使地板的接头处於稳定状态。德洛斯家是富人的地方。当你看着各处遗址，你会看到豪华的家园，大理石柱子和地板上嵌着昂贵的马赛克装饰。其中一些房屋被称为狄俄尼索斯Dionysos之家，Dolphis之家，Cleopetra的房子和面具之家，因为在他们的家中发现了这些图像和雕像。看这些象牙雕像！这些年来他们一直保存得很好。 你不喜欢有这样一个家吗？

狮子台（Terrace of the Lions）是在圣道上。

在所有古希腊城市，都有一条通往阿波罗神庙的圣道。在德洛斯，您将看到道路两边大理石狮子的着名狮子台。站在站点上的这些狮子是复制品。原本的大理石狮子现存於Delos博物馆，以防止进一步侵蚀。

一定要去博物馆看看他们。他们可以追溯到500B.C.这些都是真正的原件。您必须去德洛斯博物馆看看，因为这里有许多有趣的文物。

一幅壁画，显示仆人男孩准备狄俄尼索斯Dionysus 宗教葡萄餐的桌子。注意艺术家如何巧妙地描绘玻璃器皿。美丽的宝石在您离开之前，

请访问Delos Restored Theatre古剧院德洛斯古代剧院是完全用大理石建的少数几个之一。该建筑始於314BC。这项工程持续了70年，在250BC，剧院完工，约可容纳六千五百名观众。

感谢您今天与我们一起参观古代德洛斯。

我们乘最後一班渡轮回米科诺斯岛我们在Delos度过了6个小时，因为我们没有加入任何旅游团。如果您加入旅游团，访问通常只能持续小半天，只有3小时。如果

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Rosa