15 Best Sights in The Cyclades, Greece

If Santorini is known as the "Greek Pompeii" and is claimant to the title of the lost Atlantis, it is because of the archaeological site of Ancient Akrotiri, near the tip of the southern horn of the island. The site now has a protective roof spanning the entire enclosed area, which is in fact a whole ancient city buried under the volcanic ashes, much of it still waiting to be unearthed—almost intact. Only one in 20 of Santorini's visitors come to the site, which is a great shame as it helps to remind of the centuries of history that the island hides beneath traveler's feet.

In the 1860s, in the course of quarrying volcanic ash for use in the Suez Canal, workmen discovered the remains of an ancient town. The town was frozen in time by ash from an eruption 3,600 years ago, long before Pompeii's disaster. In 1967 Spyridon Marinatos of the University of Athens began excavations, which continue to this day. It is thought that the 40 buildings that have been uncovered are only one-third of the huge site and that excavating the rest will probably take a century.

Marinatos's team discovered many well-preserved frescoes depicting aspects of Akrotiri life, some are now displayed in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens but many have been returned to the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in Fira. Meanwhile, postcard-size pictures of them are posted outside the houses where they were found. The antelopes, monkeys, and wildcats they portray suggest trade with Egypt.

Akrotiri was settled as early as 3000 BC, possibly as an outpost of Minoan Crete, and reached its peak after 2000 BC, when it developed trade and agriculture and settled the present town. The inhabitants cultivated olive trees and grain, and their advanced architecture—three-story frescoed houses faced with masonry (some with balconies) and public buildings of sophisticated construction—is evidence of an elaborate lifestyle. Remains of the inhabitants have never been found, possibly because they might have had advance warning of the eruptions and fled in boats—beds have been found outside the houses, suggesting the island was shaken with earthquakes that made it unwise to sleep indoors.

It is worth noting that the collection is unusually weak in jewelry, but this can probably be explained by the fact that such items are high value and easy to carry and so their owners took them with them, despite the urgency of their departure.

The first monument you'll see, on the left from the harbor, is the Agora of the Competialists (circa 150 BC). The competialists were members of Roman guilds, mostly freedmen and slaves from Sicily who worked for Italian traders. They worshipped the Lares Competales, the Roman "crossroads" gods; in Greek they were known as Hermaistai, after the god Hermes, protector of merchants and the crossroads.

Beyond the path that leads to the southern part of the island is this ancient theater, built in the early 3rd century BC. It once sat 5,500 people. Close by was the elegant residential quarter inhabited by Roman bankers and Egyptian and Phoenician merchants. Their one- and two-story houses were typically built around a central courtyard, sometimes with columns on all sides. Floor mosaics of snakes, panthers, birds, dolphins, and Dionysus channeled rainwater into cisterns below; the best-preserved can be seen in the House of the Dolphins, the House of the Masks, and the House of the Trident.

A Dorian city—with 9th-century BC tombs, an engraved phallus, Hellenistic houses, and traces of Byzantine fortifications and churches—floats more than 2,100 feet above the island. At the Sanctuary of Apollo, graffiti dating to the 8th century BC records the names of some of the boys who danced naked at the god's festival (Satie's famed musical compositions, Gymnopédies, reimagine these). To get here, hike up from Perissa or Kamari or take a taxi up Mesa Vouno. On the summit are the scattered ruins, excavated by a German archaeology school around the turn of the 20th century; there's a fine view.

One of the most evocative and recognizable sights of Delos is the 164-foot-long Avenue of the Lions. The five marble beasts, which were carved in Naxos, crouch on their haunches, their forelegs stiffly upright, vigilant guardians of the Sacred Lake. They are the survivors of a line of at least nine lions that were erected in the second half of the 7th century BC by the Naxians. One statue, removed in the 17th century, now guards the Arsenal of Venice (though with a refurbished head); the remaining originals are in the Delos Archaeological Museum on the island.

Northeast of the palaestras is the Gymnasium, a square courtyard nearly 131 feet long on each side. Scratched into the rock are early graffiti of the local boys names and the girls they ogled. The long, narrow structure farther northeast is the stadium, the site of the athletic events of the Delian Games. East of the stadium site, by the seashore, are the remains of a synagogue built by Phoenician Jews in the 2nd century BC.

Above the village of Sangri, you can make out the ruins of Kastro Apilarou, the castle vanquished by the Italian conquerer, Marco Sanudo. The castle was the defensive stronghold for the region and held out for two months, but locals today still say its a bit of a mystery about who the Apilarou family really was before Sanudo came and took over. If you do make the tough climb to view it up close, you'll be greeted with a fantastic view of the Naxian plains.

Southeast of the Sanctuary of Apollo are the ruins of the Monument of the Bulls, also known as the Neorion, an extremely long and narrow structure built, it is thought, to display a trireme (an ancient boat with three banks of oars) that was dedicated to Apollo by Antigonas Gonatas thankful for a naval victory over the Ptolemies. Maritime symbols were found in the decorative relief of the main halls, and the head and shoulders of a pair of bulls were part of the design of an interior entrance.

A dirt path leads up the base of Mt. Kynthos, which is the highest point on the island. Here lie the remains of many Middle Eastern shrines, including the Sanctuary of the Syrian Gods, which was built in 100 BC. A flight of steps goes up 368 feet to the summit of Mt. Kynthos (from which the name "Cynthia" was derived), where Greek mythology says Zeus watched the birth of his son, Apollo, on the slope. There are amazing views of Mykonos, Naxos, Paros, and Syros from the top of the mountain. The path is completely unshaded, so be prepared for the heat.

Although the capital town is primarily beloved for its Venetian elegance and picturesque blind alleys, Naxos's most famous landmark is ancient: the Portara, a massive doorway that leads to nowhere. The Portara stands on the islet of Palatia, which was once a hill (since antiquity the Mediterranean has risen quite a bit) and in the 3rd millennium BC was the acropolis for a nearby Cycladic settlement. The Portara, an entrance to an unfinished Temple of Apollo that faces exactly toward Delos, Apollo's birthplace, was begun about 530 BC by the tyrant Lygdamis, who said he would make Naxos's buildings the highest and most glorious in Greece. He was overthrown in 506 BC, and the temple was never completed; by the 5th and 6th centuries AD it had been converted into a church; and under Venetian and Turkish rule it was slowly dismembered, so the marble could be used to build the castle. The gate, built with four blocks of marble, each 16 feet long and weighing 20 tons, was so large it couldn't be demolished, so it remains today, along with the temple floor. Palatia itself has come to be associated with the tragic myth of Ariadne, princess of Crete.

Ariadne, daughter of Crete's King Minos, helped Theseus thread the labyrinth of Knossos and slay the monstrous Minotaur. In exchange, he promised to marry her. Sailing for Athens, the couple stopped in Naxos, where Theseus abandoned her. Jilted Ariadne's curse made Theseus forget to change the ship's sails from black to white, and so his grieving father Aegeus, believing his son dead, plunged into the Aegean. Seeing Ariadne's tears, smitten Dionysus descended in a leopard-drawn chariot to marry her, and set her bridal wreath, the Corona Borealis, in the sky, an eternal token of his love.

The myth inspired one of Titian's best-known paintings, as well as Strauss's opera Ariadne auf Naxos.

North of Palatia, underwater remains of Cycladic buildings are strewn along an area called Grotta. Here are a series of large worked stones, the remains of the waterfront quayside mole, and a few steps that locals say go to a tunnel leading to the islet of Palatia; these remains are Cycladic (before 2000 BC).

Beyond the Sacred Way is one of the most important sites on the island, the Sanctuary of Apollo. Three separate temples originally stood here flanked by altars, monuments, and statues, although not much remains of them. The main temple was grand, fittingly called the Great Temple of Apollo (circa 480 BC). Inside the sanctuary and to the right is the House of the Naxians, a 7th- to 6th-century BC structure with a central colonnade. Dedications to Apollo were stored in this shrine. Outside the north wall a massive rectangular pedestal once supported a colossal statue of Apollo (one of the hands is in Delos's Archaeological Museum, and a piece of a foot is in the British Museum in London). Near the pedestal a bronze palm tree was erected in 417 BC by the Athenians to commemorate the palm tree under which Leto gave birth. According to Plutarch, the palm tree toppled in a storm and brought the statue of Apollo down with it. In The Odyssey, Odysseus compares the Phaeacian princess Nausicaa to a palm he saw on Delos, when the island was wetter.

Immediately to the right of the Archaeological Museum is the small Sanctuary of Dionysus, which was erected in about 300 BC. Outside the sanctuary you'll find one of the more boggling sights of ancient Greece: several monuments dedicated to Apollo by the winners of the choral competitions of the Delian festivals, each decorated with a huge phallus, emblematic of the orgiastic rites that took place during the Dionysian festivals. Around the base of one of them is carved a lighthearted representation of a bride being carried to her new husband's home. A marble phallic bird, symbol of the body's immortality, also adorns this corner of the sanctuary.

This marble Archaic temple, circa 530 BC, was lovingly restored by German archaeologists during the 1990s. Demeter was a grain goddess, and it's not hard to see what she is doing in this beautiful spot. There is also a small museum here (admission is free). The 25-minute walk here is splendid.

A short distance north of the Monument of the Bulls is an oval indentation in the earth where the Sacred Lake once sparkled. It is surrounded by a stone wall that reveals the original periphery. According to islanders, the lake was fed by the river Inopos from its source high on Mt. Kynthos until 1925, when the water stopped flowing and the lake dried up. Along the shores are two ancient palaestras (buildings for physical exercise and debate).

East of the Agora of the Competialists you’ll find the entrance to the Sacred Way, which leads north to the temple of Apollo. The Way was once bordered by beautiful marbled statues and monuments created by various kingdoms and city states of Ancient Greece. It was also the route used by pilgrims during the holy Delian festival.