A Delphi day trip from Athens travels about 180 kilometres northwest to the sanctuary of Apollo on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. The ruins rise in terraces above a deep valley of olive trees. The trip is one of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville, listed with the other day trips from Athens and Greek archaeological site tickets.
This post covers what a Delphi day trip from Athens includes, the road there and why the Greeks called Delphi the centre of the world. It also covers the oracle, the treasuries, the Temple of Apollo, the games, the shrine of Athena and the statues. The digs, the nature, the nearby coast, the later history, the best time of year and common questions come last.
The sections include Delphi day trips from Athens and related tours that can be booked online.
What is a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens ends in Phocis, in Central Greece. The modern town of Delphi stands there, just west of the ancient site. The town lies 632 meters above sea level. Two cliffs called the Phaedriades rise above the sacred site.
Phocis is the regional unit that holds Delphi. It covers 2120 square kilometers of Central Greece. It stretches from the western slopes of Parnassus in the east to the Vardousia mountains in the west.
A Delphi day trip from Athens in summer meets a busy region. In the summer months the population of Phocis nearly doubles because of tourists. The streets of Delphi town climb in terraces.
Eight older municipalities merged in 2011 to form the municipality of Delphi. It covers 1121.671 square kilometers. The European walking path E4 passes through the east end of the town of Delphi.
The Greek geographer Strabo wrote that Delphi lies almost in the center of Greece. He called it a rocky, theatre-like place on the southern side of Parnassus. A Delphi day trip from Athens therefore reaches ground that an ancient writer described.
The Greek name Phaedriades means “the shining ones”. The two cliffs rise on the lower southern slope of Parnassus. They are made of dark limestone from the Jurassic period. At noon the rock still reflects a dazzling glare.
Two peaks stand out on a Delphi day trip from Athens. Hyampeia is the eastern peak of the Phaedriades, and its modern name is Flemboukos. The western peak was called Nauplia.
- Fault: In the Pleistos valley, a fault split the north wall into two facing peaks, the Phaedriades.
- Setting: Delphi is not perched on a cliff, because all the cliffs rise above it.
- Road: The modern road cuts through the site and divides it into an upper and a lower part.
The Pleistos valley is a young rift valley, a long dip where the ground pulled apart. It runs north of the Gulf of Corinth and parallel to it. Those cliffs stay in view on a Delphi day trip from Athens.
How does the road run on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens heads west through Boeotia. Lake Copais lay in the center of Boeotia, west of Thebes. Farther on, the village of Davleia lies west of Livadeia and Thebes and east of Delphi. Old stories of Oedipus belong to this road.
Thebes is one of the old towns on a Delphi day trip from Athens. Homer called it “Seven-Gated Thebes” to tell it apart from Hundred-Gated Thebes in Egypt. Clay tablets in Linear B script found there show that the town mattered in the Bronze Age.
Alexander the Great destroyed Thebes in 335 BC. Tradition says he spared the house of the poet Pindar. A Delphi day trip from Athens then moves on across the Boeotian plain.
A legend says Heracles made the lake by digging out the Cephissus river and flooding the plain. Pausanias and Aristophanes say the lake was known for its fish, especially eels. Mycenaeans built low earth dams about 22 km long to win land from the lake.
They then dug a canal about 25 km long that led water to natural sinkholes. In 1865 the Greek government signed a contract with a French company to drain the lake. A British company finished the draining by 1931 and won back 241 square kilometers of land.
The oracle of Trophonios at Livadeia involved a frightening climb down into an underground chamber. A Delphi day trip from Athens crosses land west of Thebes that was once under water.
Pausanias wrote that the Phocian Building stood on the straight road to Delphi. Delegates of the Phocian cities met there. Pausanias named the next stretch the Cleft Road, where Oedipus killed his father. A Delphi day trip from Athens heads the same way.
- Greek name: The Cleft Road is Schisti Odos in Greek, and it ran from Daulis to Delphi.
- Crossroads: Near Daulis, three roads crossed, and Oedipus killed Laius there in a fight over who went first.
- Tombs: Pausanias says the tombs of Laius and his servant lie under rough stones at the crossing.
Distomo lies 105 km north-west of Athens, at about 450 m above sea level. The town stands 5 km north of the Gulf of Corinth coast. Distomo lies close to the road on a Delphi day trip from Athens.
Why was Delphi the navel of the world on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens visits the place that the Greeks called the navel of the world. The Greek word omphalos means navel. A stone with that name marked the spot. In myth, the snake Python guarded the stone.
The Latin name for omphalos is umbilicus mundi, the navel of the world. The stone carving at Delphi has a knotted net on its surface. Its center is hollow and widens toward the base.
Myth says the stone stands for the one that Rhea wrapped in baby clothes. She gave it to Cronus in place of Zeus. People believed that omphalos stones let them speak directly with the gods. The stone is one of the best-known sights on a Delphi day trip from Athens.
Strabo wrote that the navel in the temple was draped with ribbons. He noted that other writers said Zeus freed crows instead of eagles. A Delphi day trip from Athens leads to a place with more than one version of this tale.
Python, like other monsters, was called a son of Gaia, the Earth. When Apollo was four days old, he chased Python to the oracle of Gaia. He killed it with his arrows.
Pausanias writes that Earth first gave the oracle to a mountain nymph named Daphnis. The play Eumenides names Earth as the first prophet at Delphi, followed by Themis and then Phoebe.
Aeschylus has Apollo leave Delos and come to the dwelling places on Parnassus. In the play, Zeus gave Apollo the skill of prophecy and made him the fourth prophet. A Delphi day trip from Athens ends where Apollo’s journey ended.
- Pytho: The name Pytho replaced an earlier place name, Krisa.
- Pythia: Strabo links the names Pytho and Pythia to a verb that means to ask the oracle.
- League: The Delphic Amphictyony was set up to support the great temples of Apollo and Demeter.
The league punished offenders, from fines to expulsion. Its rule forbade wiping out a member in war or cutting a member’s water supply. Every member swore an oath. Such rules belong to the story of a Delphi day trip from Athens.
How did the oracle work on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens reaches the oracle of Apollo, where the Pythia answered questions. A full consultation was a long process that took up a whole day. Before entering the inner temple, the visitor offered a pelanos, a sort of pie.
A Delphi day trip from Athens recalls a Pythia who was first a young girl. Great weight was put on her purity for the god Apollo. A visitor named Echecrates of Thessaly carried off a young Pythia. So the Delphians changed the custom.
The oracle on a Delphi day trip from Athens served the god Apollo. He was born on the 7th day of the month Vyssios. That month was the first month of spring.
Visitors drew lots for their turn in the line. Envoys of city-states and big donors moved up the line. A right called promanteia let a city or a person ask the Pythia first.
At the oracle on a Delphi day trip from Athens, priests checked the liver of the sacrificed goat. They burned its organs on the altar of Chios. The rising smoke showed that the oracle was open.
The adyton was a small room below the temple floor, set to one side. Plutarch wrote that the room sometimes filled with a sweet smell, like perfume rising from a spring.
In the 1980s four experts studied Delphi for a United Nations survey of active faults in Greece. They included the geologist Jelle Zeilinga de Boer. In 2001 water from the Kerna spring held 0.3 parts per million of ethylene, a sweet-smelling gas.
- Croesus: Delphi won his test by describing a tortoise and a lamb cooking in a bronze pot.
- Athens: In 480 BC the oracle said that only a wall of wood was safe from capture.
- Socrates: Chaerephon asked if anyone was wiser than Socrates, and the Pythia said no one was.
The Pythia told Croesus that attacking Persia meant the fall of a mighty empire. His own empire fell. Themistocles said the wall of wood meant the Athenian ships, and the Greek fleet won at Salamis. Socrates decided that he was wiser because he alone knew how little he knew.
Which treasuries line the Sacred Way on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens follows the winding Sacred Way up to the Temple of Apollo. About 20 treasuries stood in the sanctuary to hold gifts from city-states all over Greece. Among them are the Athenian, Siphnian, Sikyonian, Knidian and Theban treasuries.
On a Delphi day trip from Athens, the Athenian Treasury is the best preserved monument of the site. It stands on the first turn of the paved way. Scenes of Theseus faced the south and east sides, and scenes of Heracles faced the north and west.
A hymn to Apollo, written with musical notes, was carved on the south outer wall of the treasury. The Second Delphic Hymn, by Limenius, dates to 128 BC. The first is credited to Athenaeus, son of Athenaeus.
A Delphi day trip from Athens also covers the Siphnian Treasury. It was the first building on mainland Greece made entirely of marble. Its east pediment shows Heracles trying to steal the tripod of Apollo while Zeus steps in.
A Delphi day trip from Athens also recalls why Heracles was angry. The Pythia had refused him an oracle. He had not been cleansed of the killing of Iphitus. The north frieze shows the gods fighting the Giants.
The Sikyonian Treasury on a Delphi day trip from Athens replaced two older buildings. One was a round tholos from about 580 BC. The other was a small monopteros from about 560 BC.
In 479 BC, after the battle of Plataea, 31 Greek cities gave a golden tripod. The tripod stood on a bronze column of three twisting snakes. It was called the Serpent Column.
- Knidian: This marble treasury was built before the Persians conquered Cnidus in 544 BC.
- Thebes: The Thebans built a treasury of dark grey limestone after beating Sparta at Leuctra in 371 BC.
- Stoa of the Athenians: It held ship figureheads and weapons, plus cables from the Persian bridge of boats.
At first only the Spartan leader Pausanias put his name on the Serpent Column. The allies forced the names of the cities to replace his. The bronze column, 8 meters high, now stands in Istanbul.
What does the Temple of Apollo show on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens shows the Temple of Apollo, finished in 334 to 333 BC. The temple measures 23.82 by 60.32 meters. The Athenian sculptors Praxias and Androsthenis made its pediments, and the east one showed Apollo and the Muses.
Greek tradition says the first temple of Apollo was a hut made of laurel branches. The tale goes on with a second temple that bees built from wax and feathers, and a third of bronze.
Legend says the heroes Trophonios and Agamedes built the fourth temple, made of stone. The next temple was finished in 510 BC under the Alcmaeonids, a family of Athens. The sculptor Antenor made its decoration.
The story of the temple on a Delphi day trip from Athens includes a bribe. The Alcmaeonid Cleisthenes bribed the oracle to make the Spartans help him against the tyrant Hippias of Athens. An earthquake in 373 BC destroyed the temple of the Alcmaeonids.
A Delphi day trip from Athens shows a temple that rose in stages. A council called the Naopes managed the building money. Work stopped in 356 BC because of attacks by Philip II of Macedon and the Thessalians.
The sage Chilon was credited with “Know thyself” more than any other of the Seven Sages of Greece. Greeks quoted “Nothing in excess” mainly as a warning against too much emotion, above all too much grief. The third maxim, “Surety is ruin”, warned people against making pledges.
Tradition credits the maxims to the Seven Sages of Greece or to Apollo. Plutarch alone describes a large letter E at the temple. E is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet.
- Dionysus: A tomb of Dionysus lay inside the temple.
- Hestia: A fir log burned all the time on her altar in the temple.
- Chios: An inscription on the altar base gave Chios the right to ask the oracle before other Greeks.
Pliny the Elder wrote that in Roman times the maxims were set in letters of gold. A Delphi day trip from Athens also shows the altar of Chios. An inscription on its cornice dates it to the 5th century BC.
What happened at the Pythian Games on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens visits the home of the ancient Pythian Games. The Games honoured Apollo and recalled his killing of the serpent Python. They held contests in music, poetry, painting, footraces, wrestling, boxing and horse racing.
A Delphi day trip from Athens recalls a festival that changed over time. At first, the Games were held every eight years. The larger Games were first held around the end of the First Sacred War.
A cithara contest, played on a type of lyre without singing, was added in 558 BC. Contests for the aulos, a double-reed wind instrument, and for singing to it were added too. The aulos singing contest was dropped by the second Games. Its sad tunes seemed ill-omened, or unlucky.
A nomos was a complex kind of solo music, tied to highly skilled performers. Sakadas of Argos won a music contest in 586 BC with the Pythian nomos. A Delphi day trip from Athens recalls that piece, which told of Apollo’s fight with Python.
The Pythian nomos is one of the earliest known examples of program music, which tells a story. Pindar’s 12th Pythian ode honours Midas of Akragas, who won the flute contest in 490 BC.
A Delphi day trip from Athens climbs to the theatre above the Temple of Apollo. Poetry and prose contests took place there, and a panel of judges chose the winners. Painting contests began in the middle of the 5th century BC.
At their peak, the athletic events included four footraces, wrestling and boxing. The last day of the Games was given to horse races. A two-horse chariot race for foals was added in 338 BC.
- Stadium: Up to 20 athletes raced at once, but the number soon fell to 17.
- Hymn: Satyr the Samian sang a hymn at the stadium in the 2nd century BC, playing a cithara.
- Hippodrome: Turning posts stood at both ends, and an altar to Taraxippus, the disturber of horses, marked crashes.
In Ovid’s telling, the first winners wore crowns of oak leaves, because the laurel did not yet exist. A Delphi day trip from Athens recalls those first winners and their crowns.
What does the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia show on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens shows the sanctuary of Athena Pronaia, a group of temples and buildings. Three temples of Athena stood there in turn, along with the round Tholos. A gymnasium and the Castalian Spring lie close by.
On a Delphi day trip from Athens, the Athena Pronaia buildings stand on a terrace called Marmaria. The first temple of Athena was built in the 7th century BC from grey porous stone. Twelve of its columns survive, with low capitals and shallow flutes.
The second temple had 12 columns on each long side and 6 on each short side. Its metopes, small panels in a band above the columns, were made of clay and showed figures.
The third temple stood on a base of three levels and had six columns on its front. It had no carved decoration except roof ornaments, possibly to contrast with the richly carved Tholos nearby.
The Tholos on a Delphi day trip from Athens had a frieze of metopes above its columns. A similar frieze crowned its inner wall. A fire damaged the Tholos in the 1st century BC.
A Delphi day trip from Athens shows two rows of Tholos metopes in the museum. The inner row has smaller figures than the outer row. A round altar from the sanctuary has 12 female figures and dates to the 2nd century BCE.
A Delphi day trip from Athens also passes the gymnasium. It was a set of buildings used by the young people of Delphi. It was first built around 330 BC, between the Athena Pronaia sanctuary and the Castalian Spring.
- Xystos: This covered walkway for athletes had a sand floor and measured about 186 by 9 m.
- Columns: The xystos had 83 columns, first Doric ones of porous stone, then Ionic ones of marble.
- Pool: A round pool, 10 m wide and 1.80 m deep, fed ten stone bathing basins.
A Delphi day trip from Athens also reaches the Castalian Spring. Niches in the rock held offerings from pilgrims. One became a church of St John the Baptist. A paved courtyard with stone benches on three sides lay in front of the Roman fountain.
Which statues stand out on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens shows statues that stand out for their age and their stories. The Charioteer, the Sphinx of Naxos and the brothers Kleobis and Biton are among them. So are Antinous, the Dancers of Delphi and a silver bull.
On a Delphi day trip from Athens, the Charioteer has no known sculptor. Art historians link it with Pythagoras of Rhegion or Calamis. It looks like statues cast in Athens, such as the Piraeus Apollo.
Chariot drivers were picked for being light but also tall, so plenty were teenagers. Around 1907 Mariano Fortuny made a pleated silk dress named the Delphos gown after the Charioteer.
The Sphinx is a typical example of Naxian sculpture at its peak, in the 6th century BC. Other columns topped by sphinxes stood at Sparta, Athens and Spata, and certain ones marked graves.
A Delphi day trip from Athens also meets the brothers Kleobis and Biton. In the story told by Herodotus, Solon ranks Tellus of Athens as happiest, then Kleobis and Biton. Argos rarely made kouroi, or statues of young men.
Hadrian ordered statues of the young Antinous for all the sanctuaries and cities of his empire. A Delphi day trip from Athens meets the statue there, set up in 130 AD, after his death. It broke at the knee and was moved to a chapel near the Temple of Apollo.
The column of the Dancers of Delphi rose about 13 metres. It had five drums, or round sections, and a capital of acanthus leaves. The three women on top, 1.95 metres tall, have bare feet in the air and raised arms.
- Bull: The silver bull is the first known large statue made wholly of forged metal.
- Method: Silver sheets were nailed over a wooden core, and the horns, ears and hooves were gold-plated.
- Size: The bull was about 2.5 meters long and dates to around the 6th century BC.
Claude Debussy named the first of his piano Préludes after the dancers, and it was published in 1910. A Delphi day trip from Athens shows art that inspired later artists.
Who dug up Delphi on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens crosses ground that French archaeologists cleared in the Great Excavation. It began in 1892 under Théophile Homolle and lasted ten years. Travellers found the ruins long before that, under the village of Kastri.
Cyriacus of Ancona was a merchant who became a diplomat. People see him as the founding father of modern classical archaeology. Long before any Delphi day trip from Athens, he spent six days at Delphi. It was then a village called Kastri.
Cyriacus took a round building for the Temple of Apollo. It was only the base of a gift from Argos. Later, George Wheler of Britain and Jacob Spon of France toured Greece together in 1675 and 1676.
The name Kastri means fort. The villagers took stone from the ruins to build their own houses. Today, a Delphi day trip from Athens visits ruins that a village once covered.
In 1838 Greek scholars suggested moving the village of Kastri to free the ruins for digging. In 1891 the French School at Athens paid to move the villagers. In return, it won a ten-year licence to dig.
A small railway carried the rubble away in tip wagons. The dig team was international and included Greek and German scholars. Their work gave a Delphi day trip from Athens its ruins.
Greek prime minister Charilaos Trikoupis wanted to link the Delphi licence to a trade treaty. The treaty promised lower French taxes on Greek currants, which are small dried grapes. A 1947 history of the American School says France set one condition: Delphi for the French School.
- 1887: The French Senate refused the trade treaty, so Greece held back the first Delphi contract.
- 1890: An archivist of the American School found that the trade deal never named currants.
- 1927: The poet Angelos Sikelianos and his American wife Eva Palmer-Sikelianos held the first Delphic Festival.
- 1930: The second Delphic Festival featured the play The Suppliants.
Eva Palmer directed the play Prometheus Bound among the ruins of the theatre. She trained the chorus and wove all the costumes. The festivals ended because they cost too much. A Delphi day trip from Athens still echoes with them.
What nature surrounds a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens crosses wild mountain country. Fir forests climb the slopes, and a huge olive grove fills the valley below. High on the slopes, a very large cave lies hidden. Snow and rain shape all of it.
Parnassus rises behind a Delphi day trip from Athens. A protected area on its south-east side covers 18,422.57 hectares. The national park leaves out the highest peaks. About 1000 mm of rain falls each year, and November is the wettest month.
Snow covers the high peaks above a Delphi day trip from Athens. It lasts from December until March and can pile up to 4 m deep. In the highest zone the snow keeps melting until the middle of June.
Between 500 m and 800 m, evergreen shrubs and broadleaf trees dominate. Higher up, conifers take over. Greek fir is the main forest tree around a Delphi day trip from Athens. It forms pure, wide stands and grows 25 to 35 metres tall.
The Tithorea forest on the north-east side lies between 500 and 1,200 metres and has karst caves. Birds of prey, woodpeckers and alpine birds are at home on Parnassus. Wolves, boars, badgers and weasels live in the park.
Much of the Pleistos river runs underground, so its surface stream flows only now and then. The bare limestone bed shines in the light like flowing water. The river starts near Arachova at about 700 metres.
The olive grove of Amfissa holds more than 1,100,000 trees. In 1994 Greece gave the table olives of Amfissa a protected designation of origin. This label ties a food to its home area.
- Altitude: The Corycian Cave lies 1,250 metres above sea level.
- Size: Its first chamber measures about 90 by 60 metres and stands about 50 metres high.
- Name: The modern name, Sarantavli, means forty rooms.
- Saffron: Ancient writers said the best saffron grew in the oval hollow around the cave.
In 1969 French archaeologists dug in the cave and found 22,000 ankle bones, mostly from sheep and goats. Forest, river, grove and cave all surround a Delphi day trip from Athens.
Which coastal towns lie near a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens lies near the shore of the Gulf of Corinth. Itea, Kirra and Galaxidi stand on that shore, while Amfissa waits inland beneath a medieval castle. These towns hold old ports, big fleets and tales of war.
The name Itea means willow. Itea lies on the north shore of the Gulf of Itea. It is 8 km south-west of Delphi, the goal of a Delphi day trip from Athens.
Itea had 4,546 people at the 2021 census. The town was founded in 1830. Frank Abney Hastings, a British officer, led a Greek squadron against an Ottoman fleet near Itea in 1827.
Kirra lies where the Pleistos river meets the Gulf of Itea. Ancient Kirra was a fortified city that watched the way from the sea to Delphi. Pilgrims came this way long before any Delphi day trip from Athens.
The people of Kirra robbed pilgrims on their way to the oracle. The First Sacred War against Kirra lasted ten years, from 595 BC to 585 BC. The attackers poisoned the water with hellebore, a poisonous plant. The sick defenders lost, and the land was given to Apollo.
The Castle of Salona in Amfissa was built after 1205 on the hill of the ancient acropolis. Greeks captured the castle on 10 April 1821. It was the first fortress to fall into Greek hands.
Galaxidi has its own history book. The monk Euthymios wrote the Chronicle of Galaxidi in 1703. A scholar found it in 1864 in the Monastery of Sotir. It is the only source for the history of Phocis from the Middle Ages until 1703.
- Harbour: Galaxidi is built around a natural double harbour on the Gulf of Itea.
- Fleet: In the 1860s and 1870s Galaxidi had a merchant fleet of over 400 ships.
- Decline: The ship owners did not switch to steam power after 1890, and the town’s wealth faded.
The Gulf of Corinth grows wider by 10 mm every year. Ports, ships and wars shaped the towns on its shore. Each one adds a story to a Delphi day trip from Athens.
What history followed the oracle on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens reaches a site with a long story after the oracle. Sacred wars were fought for control of the sanctuary. Gauls attacked it, Roman rulers took from it, and a Christian town later grew among its ruins.
Greek states fought over the site of a Delphi day trip from Athens. In the Second Sacred War, Sparta drove the Phocians out of the Temple of Apollo. An Athenian army led by Pericles put the Phocians back in charge.
In the Third Sacred War, the Phocian general Philomelus asked the Pythia for an oracle. She told him he was free to do whatever he wanted. His ally Onomarchos melted bronze and iron offerings into weapons. A Delphi day trip from Athens visits the sanctuary that lost them.
The war ended in 346 BC. Macedon was given the two votes that Phocis lost in the council of the Amphictyonic League. Later, in 279 BC, a violent thunderstorm hit the Gallic army that attacked Delphi. Its soldiers were unable to move in order or hear their orders.
The general Sulla took treasure from Delphi, Epidaurus and Olympia. To make up for it, he gave half of the land of Thebes to Apollo and Zeus. Its income went to those three sanctuaries. Emperor Nero is said to have taken about 500 statues from Delphi.
Plutarch was born at Chaeronea, about 30 km east of Delphi. Around AD 95 he became one of the two priests of the temple of Apollo. Reports say Hadrian visited the oracle twice and offered the city complete self-rule.
- Repayment: The Phocians had to pay back the stolen temple money at 60 talents per year.
- Julian: An old saints’ life says Julian’s doctor Oribasius found the oracle desolate in 362.
- Silence: The oracle seems to have fallen silent years before Emperor Theodosius banned pagan cults.
From about AD 450, Christian townspeople built three churches called basilicas, one around AD 550 at the gymnasium. The town shrank in the last quarter of the 6th century. The newest coin is from 607/608, struck under Phocas. A Delphi day trip from Athens crosses all these layers.
When is the best time of year for a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens can run all year, though the weather changes with height. The plain at Amphissa turns hot in summer. Arachova stays milder, and Mount Parnassus drops below freezing in winter. Spring and autumn bring mild highs in both places.
In Arachova, January highs average 5.9 °C and lows average 0.2 °C. In Amphissa, down on the plain, January highs average 12.3 °C and lows average 2.2 °C. A Delphi day trip from Athens in winter meets both kinds of weather.
Winter is also wet. Arachova gets 129.4 mm of rain in January and 125.6 mm in December. Amphissa gets 134 mm in January. The Aliartos station, used for Thebes, records 96.4 mm in December.
High on Mount Parnassus, a weather station at 1780 m records cold winters. Its average is minus 3.3 °C in January and minus 2.7 °C in February. The lowest temperatures there are minus 28.6 °C in January and minus 28.1 °C in March.
In Arachova, highs rise from 13.5 °C in April to 19.8 °C in late spring. In Amphissa, highs rise from 19.9 °C to 26.5 °C. Arachova gets only 32.4 mm of rain in late spring. It gets 35.8 mm in early summer.
Amphissa has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. Its highs reach 34.1 °C in July and 34.6 °C in August. Arachova is milder, with highs of 26.7 °C in July and 27.5 °C in August. A Delphi day trip from Athens meets hot plains and cooler hills in summer.
- Dry month: June is the driest month in Amphissa, with only 9.9 mm of rain.
- Mountain: At the Parnassus station, highs reach only 20.3 °C in July and 20.0 °C in August.
- Plain: The Aliartos station records 575.1 mm of rain a year, but only 6.1 mm in July.
Autumn brings mild days again. In Arachova, highs fall from 19.3 °C in October to 13 °C in November. Amphissa stays warmer, with highs of 25.3 °C in October and 19.5 °C in November. A Delphi day trip from Athens in these months avoids both extremes.
What do travelers want to know about a Delphi day trip from Athens?
A Delphi day trip from Athens raises six plain questions. Travelers ask how far Delphi lies, what the museum holds and what “know thyself” means. They also ask who Apollo was, how high the site climbs and what the Sibyl rock is.
How far is a Delphi day trip from Athens?
Places near a Delphi day trip from Athens give the distances. Amphissa lies 200 km north-west of Athens and 20 km from Delphi. The Parnassos Ski Centre, near Delphi on Mount Parnassus, is 180 km from Athens. Tithorea, at the northern foot of the same mountain, is 156 km from Athens.
What does the museum hold on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
Room 11 holds a gift to the god from Daochos II. Its base is 11 meters long, with openings for nine statues. Room 12 has a head thought to show Titus Quinctius Flamininus, the Roman general who conquered Delphi. A floor mosaic from an early church, found in 1959, shows the seasons as young figures.
What does “know thyself” mean on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
In its original use, “know thyself” mainly meant to know one’s limits. That meant knowing one’s abilities, one’s place in the world, or that one is mortal. In the 4th century BC, Plato gave it a new meaning, broadly to know one’s soul.
Who was Apollo on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
Apollo was one of the Olympian gods, and his roles included light, healing, prophecy, music, poetry and archery. As patron of Delphi, Apollo Pythios was the god of the oracle and of ritual purification. People also called him Alexicacus, the “averter of evil”.
How high does a Delphi day trip from Athens climb?
The excavation site of a Delphi day trip from Athens climbs over 300 m up the mountain slope. The town of Amphissa, 20 km away, lies at 168 m. The Parnassos Ski Centre has its base at 1,600 m, and its highest point is at 2,250 m.
What is the Sibyl rock on a Delphi day trip from Athens?
The Sibyl rock is a pulpit-like outcrop between the Athenian Treasury and the Stoa of the Athenians. Tradition links it to the Sibyl. Another idea is that the Pythia stood on it, or an acolyte who spoke the final prophecy. The rock seems ideal for public speaking. Pausanias dated the Delphic Sibyl, a prophetess, to as early as the eleventh century BC.