Delphi

Delphi was the sacred precinct of Apollo on Mount Parnassus in central Greece, and the seat of the Pythia, the Hellenic world's most authoritative oracle. The Greeks held it to be the centre of the earth, marked by the omphalos in Apollo's temple; myth told how the god slew the serpent Python.

On a tripod above the chasm the priestess delivered prophecies that shaped colonial ventures, laws and wars. City-states lined the Sacred Way with treasuries, the Athenian one commemorating Marathon in 490 BC; the Pythian Games were held every four years from 586 BC.

Sulla plundered the sanctuary in 86 BC and Nero in AD 66; it was closed under Theodosius I in 381. The antiquary Cyriacus of Ancona recorded its ruins in 1436, an earthquake did further damage in 1500, and Byron visited in 1809.