Mykonos

History

Just two kilometres away from Mykonos there is the small island of Delos, an important religious and cultural Hellenistic centre in Ancient Greece.

According to old legends, it was forbidden to give birth or to die on Delos. That is why its inhabitants used the neighbour island and many people travelled between Mykonos and Delos.

The island was also influenced by other people and cultures by that time, like the Macedonian or the Phoenician. In the 13th century, Mykonos fell under the Ghizzi dynasty's rule, just like the rest of the Cyclades; the dynasty's last ruler handed Myonos to Venice. In 1537, the island fell under Ottoman rule.

The liberation, having place 1830 in the Greek Independence War, left behind serious wounds and it took the island's population some time to recover after this dark epoch. Today, tourism has become Mykonos' main source of income.