Delos

37.4000°N, 25.2667°E.

Sacred Greek island of 3.43 km² in the central Cyclades, considered the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis in Greek mythology. The island became the religious and political centre of the Aegean by the 7th century BCE; the Delian League treasury was housed here from 478 to 454 BCE before its transfer to Athens. The island contains the Sanctuary of Apollo, the Terrace of the Lions (originally nine 6th-century BCE archaic marble lions guarding the Sacred Way; five remain in situ replicas, originals in the museum), and an extensive Hellenistic and Roman residential quarter with elaborate mosaic floors. To preserve the island's purity, no birth or burial was permitted on Delos; the dying and the pregnant were ferried to neighboring Rhenia. The island has been uninhabited since the 7th century CE.

An island where no one was allowed to be born or to die was the religious center of the Aegean for ten centuries — and is now empty.