Delphi: the navel of the world

Delphi is in central Greece, high on the steep slopes of Mount Parnassus. Below it, a valley full of olive trees runs down to the sea. Here the ancient Greeks built a ἱερόν, a sanctuary: a holy place that belonged to a god. Delphi belonged to Apollo, the god of light and music. It was famous for its oracle, but it was also a busy place full of temples, statues and gifts.

The Greeks believed that Delphi was the ὀμφαλός, the navel of the earth: its very centre. A round stone, shaped a little like an egg, marked the spot. The traveller Pausanias, who visited Delphi in the 2nd century AD, wrote that this stone was made of white marble. He added that the poet Pindar also called Delphi the centre of the earth.

Near the sanctuary flows the Castalian spring, the Κασταλία. Pausanias says that its water was sweet to drink and pleasant to bathe in. From there, visitors walked up the Sacred Way, a paved road that turns back and forth up the hill.

Along the Sacred Way stood small buildings that looked like tiny temples. Each one is called a θησαυρός, a treasury. Greek cities built them to keep the precious gifts they offered to Apollo. A city that won a battle often sent part of the booty, the things taken from the enemy.

The best-preserved building at Delphi is the Treasury of the Athenians. It is made of white marble from the island of Paros. Pausanias says that the Athenians paid for it with booty from the battle of Marathon in 490 BC, so it was probably built soon after the battle. A stone base next to it still carries the words: “The Athenians to Apollo, from the Medes, from the battle of Marathon.” The Medes were the Persians. Some archaeologists date it a little earlier, to about 500 BC, from its style.

The people of the island of Siphnos were rich from their mines. Around 530–525 BC they built a treasury all of marble. Two statues of women held up its porch instead of columns, and its carvings were painted blue, red, green and gold.

In 479 BC, after the Persian Wars, the Greek cities that had fought together set up a golden tripod on a bronze column of three twisted snakes. This Serpent Column was taken to Constantinople in AD 330. It still stands in Istanbul, and a bronze copy was put back at Delphi in 2015.

At the top of the Sacred Way stood the ναός, the temple of Apollo. The temple we see today is not the first one. An earlier temple was finished in 510 BC, but an earthquake destroyed it in 373 BC. The Greek cities collected money again, and the new temple was finished in 334–333 BC. Inside it, the Greeks kept the statue of the god and the omphalos stone. Today you can see its great stone base and a few of its columns.

Above the temple is the θέατρον, the theatre, with 35 rows of stone seats. It held about 4,500 people. Around 160 BC, King Eumenes II of Pergamon paid for building work on it.

Higher still, near the top of the site, is the στάδιον, the stadium. Its track is about 178 metres long, and it is the best-preserved ancient stadium in Greece. Here athletes ran races in the Pythian Games, the great games of Delphi. The winners did not get money: their prize was a crown of laurel leaves.

Below the main sanctuary, at a place called Marmaria, stands the Tholos, a round marble building from 380–370 BC. Nobody knows for sure what it was used for.

After ancient times, a village called Kastri grew up on top of the ruins. In 1892 the French School of Archaeology at Athens began the “Great Excavation”. The houses of Kastri were bought and pulled down, and a small railway carried the earth away. Slowly the treasuries, the temple, the theatre and the stadium came to light.

In 1903 a μουσεῖον, a museum, opened for the finds. Its most famous statue is the Charioteer, the ἡνίοχος: a young man in bronze who drove a chariot. A ruler of Gela, in Sicily, gave it to Apollo after a chariot race at the Pythian Games, probably in 478 or 474 BC. Only his left hand is missing, and his eyes, made of white enamel and stone, still look at visitors. In the museum you can also see an omphalos carved in stone, covered with a carved net like the woollen net that covered the holy stone. It once stood on top of a tall column with three dancers (330–325 BC).

In 1927 the poet Angelos Sikelianos and his wife Eva Palmer held the first Delphic Festival here, with an ancient play. Since 1987 Delphi has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And the water of the Castalian spring still flows.