Mykonos history

According to Greek Mythology the rocky formations of Mykonos are the exact spot where Hercules buried the Giants after his fierce battle with them.
The name according to some means “a mound of stones” or “rocky place” . According to a different version the island was named after the hero Mykonos, son of the King of Delos who was the son of Apollo.

The first inhabitants of Mykonos were Phoenicians but around 1000 B.C. Ionians from Athens conquered the island and settled down in its territory. Phoenicians and Athenians left their mark on the island but it was during the time of Alexander the Great when it evolved into an important center for maritime trade, reaching its peak during the Roman occupation.
Through the centuries Mykonos changed hands going from the Phoenicians to the Romans, to the Venetians during the Middle Ages, to the Saracens and finally to the Turks who dominated the area from the 14th century on.  

During the 1821 Greek War of Independence against the Turkish rule, which ended with the liberation from the Turks in 1830, Mykonos, under the leadership of the Mykonian heroine Mando Mavrogenous, roused and participated actively in the war with a fleet of four ships.

After the establishment of the newly formed Greek State, the island’s economy is revived. Local merchants become established in Constantinople, Alexandria, Smyrna, Marseilles, but the predominance of steam ships against the traditional commerce of sailing ships, at the end of the 19^th century, the opening of the Canal of Corinth in 1904, and World War I, lead Mykonian economy to a downturn.
Mykonians, like many other Greeks, left their island to find work in urban centers, like Athens and Piraeus, or even abroad. It was only after the mid 50s, with the development of tourism, that Mykonos started to regain momentum and its economy begun its upward course.

According to Greek Mythology this was the place where Leto, following an affair with Zeus and chased by Zeus’ jealous wife Hera, found refuge and gave birth to Apollo and Artemis.
It is believed that the island was first inhabited around the 3^rd millennium and according to Thucydides its first inhabitants were the Carians, while excavation findings suggest a Minoan and Mycenaean period as well.
In approximately 1000 B.C Delos became the cultural and religious center of an amphictyony of the Aegean islands under the protection of Naxos. Every four years a great festival, Delia, in honor of Apollo and Artemis, would take place, with sacrifices, musical and dancing contests. The Athenians entered the amphictyony and by the mid 6^th century B.C. started to impose their rule. During the time of Peisistratos (540 B.C) the Athenians enforced the first purification of the island and removed all graves from the area of the sanctuary.
During the Persian wars Delos remained untouched by the catastrophes the other Cycladic islands suffered, and from 478 B.C. and on became the natural meeting ground for the Delian League. The League’s treasury was kept  there until 454 BC when Pericles moved it to Athens.

In 426 B.C. the Athenians imposed a second purification in the island by removing all the remains of those buried in its ground, transferring them to the neighboring island of Rhenia.  Since then, no deaths or births were allowed in Delos.
By the end of the 4^th century B.C and up until 168 B.C Delos flourished. From 166 B.C., under the protection of the Athenians Delos became an important commercial center. In 88 B.C the army of Mithridates destroys all its monuments, temples, and slaughters its 20,000 inhabitants. In 69 B.C. another catastrophic invasion will take place only to be repeated in the following years by pirates. The islands commercial prosperity comes to an end. By the end of the 2^nd century A.D. there is nothing else on the island except for a small settlement which was abandoned in the 6^th century A.D. 
The importance of the island’s history started to unfold itself in 1877, when the French Archaeological School started their first official excavations on the island.
In 1990, UNESCO included Delos in the World Heritage List as an “exceptionally extensive and rich” archaeological site.
Today, in the island’s Archaeological Museum, visitors may admire a significant collection of sculptures, ceramic vessels, epigraphs, mosaic floors, and other excavation findings.