Regarded by the ancients as the center of the world, the Sanctuary of Delphi nestles in the forested slopes and rocky crags of Mount Parnassus.

A sacred site since the Bronze Age, legend has it that the shrine, and its famous oracle, was once guarded by the she-dragon Pytho.

Pytho was eventually slain by the god Apollo who then appropriated the site - or at least his followers did, in the 8th century B.C. Lying roughly one hundred miles northwest of Athens, the complex of buildings includes the Temple of Apollo, home of the famous oracle, the mysterious Corycian Cave and the Castalian Spring.

OSSIOS LUKAS

Is set in the folds of Mt. Helikon halfway from Athens to Delphi. It is a Byzantine monastery built in the 11th C. dedicated to Saint Luke, a monk who had retired to that district. The splendid mosaics and the architecture of the cathedral are of the finest Byzantine monuments in the century.