Delos, a rocky island, 5km long and 1300m. wide, it was a sacred island, because Apollo and Artemis, two of the most important gods of the Greek pantheon, were born. It is located in the heart of the Aegean, in the center of the Cyclades, which form a circle around it, which Callimachus (3rd century BC) calls "home of the islands". The oldest inhabitants (probably the Cares) built around 2,500 BC. elliptical huts on top of Kynthos where they could easily control the valley and the sea. Around the 6th BC century, the Apollonius Sanctuary, experienced its greatest prosperity when Peisitratos decides the purification of the Sacred Island. The bones of the dead of Delos are transferred to Rhenia, and from then on births and deaths were forbidden, because they were considered to be polluting the sacred space of Apollo. Greeks from all over Greece at the time gathered on the island to worship the two gods, the god of the Sun, Apollo, and his twin sister, goddess of the Moon, Artemis, but also their mother Leto, with the established festival Delia. After 166 BC the Romans declared the port of Delos unfit. Merchants, bankers and shipowners from all over the then known world settled on the island and built luxurious residences, decorated with frescoes, mosaic floors and statues and the island was the largest commercial center in the world. Delos was destroyed and plundered twice in 88 BC. by the fifth king Mithridates, and in 69 BC. from the pirates of Athenodorus, an ally of Mithridates. Since then the island fell into decline and was gradually abandoned. Excavations on the island began in 1872 and continue to this day where most of the then Hellenistic city and the Sanctuary have been uncovered. Delos, the sacred island of the ancient Greeks which, according to mythology, emerged from the waves of the Aegean Sea, where Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. Inhabited at least since the 3rd Millennium BC, possibly by the Cares, it was transformed at the beginning of the 10th century BC into a cult center and the seat of a large amphictyony in the Aegean. At the end of the 6th c. BC the Athenians tend to dominate the sacred island. Already in 540 BC, Peisistratos decides on his first purification, while with the second, in 426 BC, the bones of all the dead of Apollo are transferred, so that they do not touch his Sanctuary. With the arrival of the Macedonians in 315 BC, the island gained its independence and the possibility to develop commercially. The establishment of the Romans later, resulted in the cumulative arrival of Egyptians, Syrian and Italian traders and the further development of the island until 88 BC where, during the Mithridatic wars, it was subjected to devastating attacks and began to decline until its final abandonment in the 6th century AD. The French School of Archeology begins excavations at the archaeological site in 1873 and Delos emerges from obscurity, revealing its monuments and history to the modern world. The ruins of one of the largest and most well-organized settlements of Greco-Roman antiquity are preserved here, in remarkably good condition. The French School of Archeology begins excavations at the archaeological site in 1873 and Delos emerges from obscurity, revealing its monuments and history to the modern world. The ruins of one of the largest and most well-organized settlements of Greco-Roman antiquity are preserved here, in remarkably good condition. The French School of Archeology begins excavations at the archaeological site in 1873 and Delos emerges from obscurity, revealing its monuments and history to the modern world. The ruins of one of the largest and most well-organized settlements of Greco-Roman antiquity are preserved here, in remarkably good condition.