Next to the archaeological site at Delphi is one of the most important museums in all Greece, devoted exclusively to finds from the surrounding area. In the entrance hall is a navel -stoneof the Roman period, together with sections of a frieze showing scenes from the feats of Heracles, added to the proscenium of the theatre in the first century BC. Room 1 contains copper votive offering of the seventh century BC. Room 2 is dominated by the sculptures which once ornamented the treasury of the Siphnians (525 BC). The frieze depicted scenes from the Trojan War (eas...| more info

Between the two sanctuaries, archaeologists have uncovered the Gymnasium of Delphi, which was built in around 330 BC on two flat areas. All along the upper level was the xystos, a colonnade in which the athletes could train under cover, with 83 columns on its facade. In front of the xystos was the open track or paradromis. On the lower level was the palaestra, or wrestling ground, with colonnades around a square court. To the north-west, a circular cistern which stored water for the athletes to bathe in has been found, along with Roman baths. In 1743, a little m...| more info

The Oracle of Delphi, known through-out the ancient world, occupied a site beneath the towering cliffs called the Phaidriades in an imposing ravine on the side of Mt Parnassus. The site was dedicated to Apollo, god of moderation and of music, whose job it was to ensure that sacred laws of Zeus were kept. For the ancients, Delphi was the centre of the world, the so-called omphalos or navel of the earth. Before the cult of Apollo was established, the oracle belonged to the earth-goddess Gaea and it was guarded by a dragon called Python, whom Apollo had to slay bef...| more info

The pass of Thermopylae separates Mt Kallidromo from the sea of the Malliakos Gulf. One kilometer long and - in antiquity - only 5-20 metres broad, the pass was the scene of many battles down the centuries, the most famous of them being the heroic resistance of the Spartans to the invading Persians in 480 BC. Xerxes, the Persian King, had brought his enormous army west and south through northern Greece, but the Greeks were waiting for him at Thermopylae. The Greek forces resisted bravely, but were betrayed by a certain Ephialtes, who showed the Persians how to o...| more info

The sanctuary of Apollo was surrounded by a precinct, built in the sevbenth century BC and reconstructed in the sixth. The main gate into the precinct lay on its west side, later being moved to the south-east, where the entry to the archaeological site is today. Here the Sacred Way began, winding up to the temple of Apollo and lined with the countless votive statues of Greek and foreign cities. Outside the precinct was the Forum of Roman times, and at the beginning of the Sacred Way were some notable statues erected to commemorate famous victories won by the Arc...| more info

Above the stadium towered the cliffs called the Phaedriades, in which was the ancient Castalian spring. The water ran down to a fountain of the seventh or sixth century BC close to the modern main road. Behind, higher up on the rocks, can seen the ruins of another fountain, of the Roman period. It was in the Castalian spring that the Pythia washed, as did visitors to Delphi, thus taking in some of the prophetic properties of the water.

The second of the important sanctuaries at Delphi was dedicated to Athena Pronaea. The remains of its buildings have been excavated to the south-east of the sanctuary of Apollo, in an area which has yielded the earliest known traces of cult worship. A female divinity was worshipped here in Mycenean times, later being replaced by Athena. The sanctuary of Athena stood inside a walled precinct whose main entrance was on its north-east side. The first temple to the oddess was erected in the early sixth century and, unusually, faced south. It was Doric and peripteral...| more info