Rising Sea May Erode Delos Apollo Sanctuary Within Decades

The sanctuary of Apollo on the island of Delos, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that once attracted pilgrims from all over Greece, may soon be destroyed by rising sea levels brought about by climate change, scientists warn.

The extensive and rich archaeological site is one of the most important sanctuaries of the ancient Greek and Roman world, and its 2,000-year-old structures breathe the life of antiquity into the modern day, offering a glimpse of the ancient past.

But, within decades, due to rising sea levels, the site and its temples guarded by stone lions, may have been destroyed.

“Delos is condemned to disappear in around 50 years,” Veronique Chankowski, head of the French Archaeological School of Athens (EFA), which has been excavating the Apollo site for the past 150 years under license from the Greek state, told Phys.org.

The small island’s dramatic history puts it in stark contrast with the party-like atmosphere of neighboring Mykonos, which draws in hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

The most advanced structural damage is visible in an area that once housed trade and storage buildings in the first and second centuries BC, and is not accessible to visitors.

Apollo Sanctuary Walls in Delos Being Eroded by Seawater

“Water enters the stores in winter. It eats away at the base of the walls,” Jean-Charles Moretti, the French mission’s director on Delos and a researcher at the French State Institute for the Research of Ancient Architecture told AFP.

“Every year in the spring, I notice that new walls have collapsed,” added Moretti, who has taken part in digs on the island for the past 40 years. Over just 10 years, the seal level has risen by up to 20 meters in some parts of the island, said Chankowski.

A study by Aristotle University in Thessaloniki last year found that increasing temperatures combined with high levels of humidity can significantly alter the chemical composition of specific materials used in cultural heritage monuments.

“Just like the human body, monuments are built to withstand specific temperatures,” study supervisor Efstathia Tringa, a meteorology and climatology researcher at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, said earlier this year.

The ancient Greeks believed Delos was the birthplace of Apollo, god of light, arts, and healing, and of his sister Artemis, goddess of the hunt. The siblings were among the primary gods honored by both the Greeks and the Romans.

At the height of its fame during the Roman era, Delos drew in pilgrims and traders from across the ancient world and consequently expanded into a bustling city of roughly 30,000 people. But, ultimately, the island’s popularity became its undoing. It was looted twice in the first century BC and eventually abandoned altogether.