Ancient Delphi

Around 150 kilometres from Athens, Delphi is an ancient mountainside sanctuary, and Unesco World Heritage Site, close to the base of Mt Parnassus. In Classical Greece it was considered the ‘naval of the earth’, a spiritual focal point and the place where mortals could come and communicate directly with the gods.

There are a number of sanctuaries here but at the heart of Delfi is the Sanctuary of Apollo. Here, the most prestigious oracle in Ancient Greece would impart the divine advice of Apollo to mortals. Pilgrims would come from all over the ancient Greek world to seek an audience with this high priestess, usually a woman from the local area, and hear Apollo’s response.

Beautifully preserved and utterly timeless, Delphi still exudes a mystic atmosphere made all the more magical by its setting. Never part of a city, and a reasonable distance from the modern town of Delphi, it remains gloriously isolated, simply overlooking the sea of olive groves all the way down to the Bay of Corinth, similar views to those that visitors would have admired millennia ago.