Plaka: Delphi: Journey

It's common in religions and other disciplines that anyone seeking ultimate answers goes on a pilgrimage that involves physical movement. You walk, or journey in some way to prepare yourself. If you arrive too quickly at the place where you will think of ultimates you will not be ready to listen.

Delphi's location is conducive to this process. You would likely land your boat near modern-day Itea (on right, at the bottom of the water) and walk or ride up the mountain to the site. Perhaps you came across land from the east and so walked all the way. Even today, via highway, it is an ascent, a trip.

Delphi is located at an elevation of about 550m (1800ft) above the Gulf of Corinth, so it is no small climb.

Once on site, you are as taken by the cliffs above you as the view below - and the regular seismic activity in the region adds a note of danger to being there.

(More images of the view.)

And under snowy Parnassos came to Krisa then,
a slope that faces Zephyr. Above it hangs a crag;
a hollow and rugged valley runs below. This spot
Lord Phoibos Apollo marked out as his lovely shrine's site, and said:
'In this place it is my plan to set up a beautiful shirne
as an oracle sought by humans. -- Homeric Hymn 3, "To Apollo"

In all, a suitable place to listen to the gods and certainly justifies the Blue Guide's quote that

"[Delphi] is by common consent the most spectacularly beautiful ancient site in Greece, and the one which, even to the uninitiated, most vividly evokes the Classical past." (Blue Guide to Greece, 1995, p. 389).

Shall we enter the sacred way?