There in the middle of the Aegean lies the small island called Delos which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Apparent, so to say, because it appeared or emerged from the bottom of the sea and became the birthplace of two gods: Artemis and Apollo.
Arriving at Delos the small boat anchors at the ancient commercial port, and you find yourself walking in the Agora of the Competaliasts. All around there are little shops and in the middle two altars. One is Hermes’s and the other Maia’s, his mother’s. The Competaliasts were merchants, who took their name from the Roman divinities known as Lares Compitales.
The island was an important sanctuary for the Ionians, initially under the surveillance of the Naxians, later of the Parians and finally of the Athenians who treated the inhabitants with cruelty. Visit the ruined sanctuary and the museum, the agoras, the marble lion guards that form an impressive avenue leading to the agora, the gymnasiums and the palaestras, the houses with the fine mosaics, the temples of the foreign gods and climb on the summit of Kynthos (112 m) to admire the view of the Cyclades and inhale the light of Delos, the light of the Aegean.
You have just discovered the sacred island of Apollo!