Thursday, December 07, 2006

Greece - Delos

If you thought we would be ruined-out after the stint on the mainland, you'd have a point. However, there was a half-day trip to a nearby island - Delos - that contained nothing but ruins and it's all famous, a great place to go, etc, etc.

Fearing 3 hours of busted-up rock and some tatty signs, we ventured forth anyway and were happy to find a very interesting place with stuff that actually looks like it was something.

This place WAS Greece at one time. The center of the ancient Greek civilisation before they relocated to Athens when the island became impossible to defend. Primarily a trading centre with significant port facilities, it later became the Westie's BMW of Cyclades - has little practical use but fun to show off anyway. Consequentially, lots and lots of absolutely top temples litter the place along with great statues and a well-preserved town.

Let's go...


I bought this before discovering that it's not one of the goes-over-rocks boats.

A fancy roof giving some idea of what this place used to look like.

Temple up on the hill fronting a cave. Caves, apparently, were all the rage for temples.

This site is famous for it's lions. The explanation of why it doesn't look much like a lion at all is that they weren't exactly roaming around the place so not many people had actually seen one. Bit like weapons of mass destruction - you can make them look like anything you want.

There's the rest of the lions with a bit of a tiger in front.

A pretty ugly lizard sunning himself.

Well, he's seen better days.

Inside one of the houses in the old town. Yes, that is the dunny.

Another temple with a really good mosaic floor.

Good pillars, too.

The main cistern. It's a very small island - about 5km x 1km - so they wouldn't have had much water.

Bit more of the town.

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