The navel of the ancient world — where Apollo's Oracle guided empires, the Pythia breathed fumes from the earth, and the finest Greek bronze sculpture still stands in its original shrine
Delphi is a mountain sanctuary on the southern slopes of Parnassus at 570m elevation, 180km northwest of Athens in Phocis, Central Greece. In antiquity it was considered the omphalos (navel) of the world — the point where Zeus sent two eagles from opposite ends of the earth and they met. The Panhellenic sanctuary of Apollo, operating from at least the 8th century BCE, was the most influential oracle in the ancient Mediterranean: the Pythia gave responses consulted by city-states, kings, and individuals on matters of war, colonisation, and divine will. The ruins are UNESCO World Heritage liste…
Delphi's oracle began as a cult of the earth goddess Gaia before Apollo displaced her — a mythological transition preserved in the Python myth. The sanctuary reached its peak between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, when the Sacred Way was lined with 3,000 statues and the treasury buildings of competing city-states formed an outdoor museum of Greek wealth and rivalry. Philip II of Macedon seized the sanctuary in 346 BCE and his son Alexander consulted the oracle before departing for Persia. The Romans plundered Delphi but maintained the oracle until 363 CE, when the emperor Julian reportedly re…