Archaeological Site of Delphi

Suddenly we were alone. The last of the tour buses charged back towards Athens. Looking down over the theatre and the standing columns of the great temple of Apollo I could not see a single other soul. The ever-present drone of the cicadas was our only company. So, on the one hand, after 2pm seemed a perfect time to be visiting Delphi without the crowds. However, I thought as I drained the last of my water bottle, after 2pm in July in the middle of a Mediterranean heatwave when half of Greece appeared to be on fire was also a monumentally stupid time to be visiting Delphi. And I didn’t need an oracle to tell me that!

The ancient world was liberally larded with oracles and soothsayers, whether it is the ill-fated Cassandra in Troy or the haruspices sacrificing animals on Rome's Palatine Hill. So what makes Delphi the example par excellence of an oracular site? I would say it’s a perfect mix of supply and demand. In terms of demand, Delphi has a cracking set of origin stories with Zeus discovering that this was the omphalos or navel / centre of the Greek world, Apollo slaying the monstrous Python and Heracles being ordered to complete his famous Labours by the pythian priestess. It was hence fully integrated to the mythological worldview of the Hellenic world. And because of this it was sought out by historical kings and rulers only increasing its fame. So this created the …

When you visit Epidauros or Olympia you can transfer the site quickly to a modern counterpart. Epidauros, the spa town. Olympia, the sports place. With Delphi this is way harder as it's not really clear how/if the Oracle really worked.

One explanation is that the Oracle would give ambivalent advice that would hold true no matter what. The most famous example is the advice "If Croesus goes to war he will destroy a great empire." True either way as you can see. Another explanation is that Delphi was like an intelligence hub. The whole Greek world would pass through. And to obtain advice, you needed to share information first. So the priests at Delphi would have access to a wide range of very sensitive information. Thinking about it, they maybe were what we nowadays call mentalists, and all they did was to use cold and hot reading techniques. Unfortunately, no historic description that would shed some light on the process remains.

The site roughly consists of three parts. The area above the road, the area below the road and the museum. All are stunning and convey how central a role Delphi played in the Greek world for centuries. The museum holds many great pieces with the horse carriage rider the greatest piece.

To me Delphi is on par with Olympia, another great site, just a tiny bit below the Akropolis as it's lacking the iconic image.

Getting There

Athens has several bus stations and I …

I am quite disconcerted at reading other travellers' comments that Delphi might not be the best in Greece, or that its ruins might be disappointing... allow me to claim that Delphi actually is among the top 3 archaeological sites in Greece (at least for me)!!! And this comes from a blend of history and setting.

My first (and until now only) visit to Delphoí came quite late (October 2018) when considering my numerous previous forays in Greece, and I was quite excited at the idea. Delphi, the navel of the world, home to the prophetic Pythia! If you have ever studied Classics and Greek at high school (a quite common thing in Italy) or at university or wherever, this name will be covered in legends. We might well say that, whenever an ancient text tells of two Greeks meeting along any road in Greece, one of the two is always heading to Delphi. 

A fact I found astounding: what we see now is a result of excavations and partial reconstructions that could only happen at the end of the XIXth century after an entire village was dislodged and relocated where we find it now. The village had stood there for centuries, and Delfi had vanished and been long forgotten. Was it ethically acceptable? I don't know. Could such a thing happen today? I don't know. Was it worth it? I am inclined to think so.

The natural scenario is stunning. You are high up in the hills, …

Perched on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, northwest of Athens, the Archaeological Site of Delphi is one of the highlights of a trip to Greece. I visited Delphi on a personal day tour from Athens in November 2019, an off-season excursion that allowed my friend and I to wander through the site with few other visitors beyond a French class meandering up the mount.

Delphi is a showcase of Greecian history. The site I was most pleased to see was the Temple of Apollo, home to Pythia, the famed Oracle of Delphi. The foundation and a smattering of columns from one side of the temple remain halfway up the slope, although the abundance of fresh air makes it unlikely that any vapors from the subterranean chasm will lead to prophecies today. In a similar vein, the Sibyl rock, upon which another oracle expounded, remains a little further down the hill. Just next door is the incredible reconstructed Treasury of Athens, a gift from the city-state to thank Apollo for their victory over the Persians in the Battle of Marathon. Further up the hill is a theater with a spectacular view over the valley of Phocis, and a path to the sacred Castalian spring. At the summit of the archaeological site is the Stadium of Delphi, a well-preserved athletic site that was home to the Pythian Games, an ancient Panhellenic competition dedicated to Apollo and contested every four years (offset from the Olympic Games by two years). While it is …

Growing up as kids, we learned about the Oracle of Delphi. The whole Oracle thing was always a bit confusing – kind of a god or a seer of the future.

Visiting the actual archaeological site was more impressive than we ever thought it would be. Delphi is nestled in a crease of Mount Parnassus. It offers beautiful views of the valleys and mountains of central Greece.

Beginning in the 6th Century B.C., Delphi was essentially the center of the civilization. It was a religious center for the god of Apollo (the most important of the Greek gods). It was a major political center for Greeks and even the Mycenaeans before them. And the supernatural, where pilgrims received predictions of the future.

We really didn’t know what to expect in visiting in Delphi, but we were surprised that this far more to the site than the “Oracle.” This was a fantastic day trip from Athens.

Delphi was the sacred center of the world for the Ancient Greeks and undoubtedly a remarkable achievement of purposeful architecture, a sanctuary built into the challenging landscape to inspire awe and worship. Unfortunately, very little is left of its former glory, and the visual impact is fairly muted. Having experienced grandiosity of the Parthenon at Acropolis or the vastness in various states of preservation at Delos, it is hard to see Delphi as little more than a sequence of terraces with few surviving features here or there. Of course, you may be more into archaeology than I am or simply more attuned to the aura of the great legacy that the Ancient Greece bestowed on the mankind, so the simple fact of being in such an important and symbolic place may give you additional satisfaction.

The focal point of Delphi is the Temple of Apollo, undoubtedly photogenic, backed by the views over the valley of Phocis. Among other defined points are the Athenian Treasury, the theater, and the stadium up the mountain. The higher you climb, the more sweeping the views become, but in reality climbing more than a terrace or two above the Temple of Apollo is worthwhile only if you are looking for some mountain hiking.

Delphi is located in the administrative region of Central Greece about two and a half hours drive from Athens. An hour appears sufficient to explore the core of the site (for aforementioned hiking, add another hour). The archaeological museum is …

I visited this WHS in June 2014. It's one of the most crowded sites in Greece. However, most tour groups gather mainly in the shade of the trees near the Temple of Apollo and in the archaeological museum of Delphi, afraid of the scorching sun. Most don't even visit the theare and the stadium that are high above the Temple of Apollo. These were my personal favourites as they offer great views of the surrounding mountains and a great panoramic view of the Archaeological Site of Delphi. About 250 metres away, I visited the Ancient Gymnasium and the Athena Pronaia Sanctuary which has the famous tholos (picture). All in all a great classical site but not the best Greece has to offer.

The setting of this place is wonderful with its ruins, mountain backdrop, and vista down the deep olive tree strewn valley to the sea. The ruins are often photographed and described. What seems to be a secret are the remains of the stadium in the upper portion of this site. The banks of seats on the northern side and the starting blocks in the stadium field are very well preserved. This stadium is the best I have ever seen, except for the one at Aphrodisias in Turkey.

Delphi is indeed a lovely day trip from Athens. The Temple of Apollo is quite impressive and I'm glad I had a panoramic camera to capture the structure. The theatre (or stadium) is also spectacular. It's worth your time to go through the Delphi Museum. I was naughty and took a flash photo of the Charioteer of Delphi. It came out blurry (serves me right) but the statue had quite an impact on me during my visit.

Participating in “organised tours” is not really my favourite way of travelling. But sometimes there is an arrangement where the hassle of getting to your destination might become too much compared to signing up and paying a couple of Euros to a company with a ready-to-go-tour. Making an excursion to Delphi from Athens is exactly such a tour. Getting to Delphi by car is of course a non-issue but with only public transport as option it becomes quite a complicated task. So it was not long before I found myself in one of those comfortable air-conditioned bus with a guide constantly mumbling a lot of gibberish in broken English to an audience of half-asleep tourist due to the early morning departure time.

After first making its way through a quite boring Greek landscape we reached the first mountains after a couple of hours driving. And suddenly the trip took on a more exciting perspective - in which turn is the bus going to drive off the road and tumble down in the valley…? Now, not now, now….considering how they drive in Greece I’m amazed that there are no more cars and other motor vehicles lying in heaps on the side of the roads?

Having reached Delphi, one immediately notice how beautifully located is sits on the mountainside and it is said that when Zeus released two eagles from opposite ends of the world, their paths crossed in the sky above Delphi, establishing Delphi as the centre of the world. And …

Delphi is one of those places whose ancient importance cannot really be seen today anymore, just felt and imagined. It is located in a beautiful mountain setting, on the Parnassus Mountain, and its remaining monuments don´t quite reflect its extreme significance in ancient Greece, when it was the site of its most important oracle and the "centre of the world". Many of the buildings and temples are similar to others all over Greece, but the walk along the Sacred Way is really special, and the setting of the site is unique. Definitely worth a visit when you´re interested in ancient Greece.

Finally, after 10 days of being a lonely visitor to Ancient Greece, I saw them: The Crowds. On Sunday all archeological sites have free entrance, and a lot of Greek families take this opportunity. Also quite a number of foreign tourists - may be because of Delphi's relative proximity to Athens.

Ancient Delphi was built against a mountainside. An impressive setting, though not many remains. A steep walkway connects the monuments - The Sacred Way. This was once littered with gifts by graceful city-states and made a promising entrance to the temple of Apollo.

Highlight nowadays is the sanctuary of Athena, across the street from the main site. The graceful "tholos" there features in many Delphi pictures (including mine).