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Hidden gemHub · 2 stops1st – 7th c. ADTicketed

Melos – Milos

Klima, Μήλος

city · Milos, Greece

What it is
Melos was the ancient city of the island of Milos, its main town in antiquity, lived in from the 9th or 8th century BC to the 6th or 7th century AD (the site's board).
What you’ll see
The Venus de Milo, the Aphrodite now in the Louvre, was found in the ancient city, along with an Asclepius now in London and a Poseidon and an archaic Apollo in Athens (en.wikipedia).
Worth the trip?
Yes, if you are on Milos. The theatre and the catacombs are 250 m apart and make one visit, with the museum in Plaka nearby (OpenStreetMap; the operator).
Getting there & cost
The theatre and the catacombs are near Trypiti: the catacombs are a 13-minute walk from the centre of Trypiti and 18 minutes from Plaka, and 15 minutes by car from Adamas, the island's port (the operator). The bus stop "Katakombes (Arch.TicketedHours, tickets and parking
Brown hills rising from a calm blue sea, with a white village on the left-hand summit, another white village along the ridge on the right and a row of small houses at the water's edge below.
Plaka on the hilltop at left, Trypiti on the ridge at right and Klima at the water's edge; ancient Melos lay on the slope between Trypiti and Klima. · Photo: Zde · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A small white marble theatre with curved rows of seats and a long stage building, set on a scrubby hillside above a wide blue bay with boats, a few white houses at the shore and mountains across the water.
The Roman theatre above the old harbour of Klima, in 2015. · Photo: Zde · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
A long underground corridor cut in pale volcanic rock, lit from below, with arched burial recesses opening on both sides and a pit grave cut into the floor.
A corridor of the catacombs. · Photo: Zde · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

The stops

2 places to see, the best preserved and best known first.

See all 2 stops on the mapWhere each one is, so you can plan your own way round.Open the map →
  1. A long underground corridor cut in pale volcanic rock, lit from below, with arched burial recesses opening on both sides and a pit grave cut into the floor.

    Photo: Zde · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    necropolis · Milos

    Catacombs of Milos

    Spacious chambers joined by narrow passages, and a family burial chamber, are all carved into the rock; the galleries run for about 200 m in all, 1 to 5 m wide and 1.6 to 2.5 m high.

    Ticketed
  2. A small white marble theatre with curved rows of seats and a long stage building, set on a scrubby hillside above a wide blue bay with boats, a few white houses at the shore and mountains across the water.

    Photo: Zde · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons

    theatre · Milos

    Ancient Theatre of Milos

    The seating, horseshoe-shaped, is mostly laid on the natural slope of volcanic tufa; its ends rest on strong retaining walls of squared stone blocks with a core of rubble and mortar.

    Unknown

Melos was the ancient city of the island of Milos, its main town in antiquity, lived in from the 9th or 8th century BC to the 6th or 7th century AD (the site’s board). It lay on the slope between the village of Trypiti and its old harbour at Klima (en.wikipedia), and its two main sights today are Roman and early Christian: a marble theatre of the Roman period above the bay and a Christian catacomb cut into the volcanic rock (the site’s board; the operator).

What is there today

  • The Ancient Theatre of Milos, a marble theatre of the 1st to 4th century AD on the hillside above the old harbour, is counted by the site’s board among the best-preserved ancient theatres in the Cyclades. Only its lower part has been excavated, with seats for about 800 people (the site’s board).
  • The Catacombs of Milos, about 200 m east of the theatre, are an underground Christian cemetery outside the city walls, with about 200 m of galleries cut into the soft volcanic rock and used from the mid-1st to the 7th century AD by the operator’s dating (the operator; en.wikipedia). A ticket is €10 (the operator).

The Venus de Milo, the Aphrodite now in the Louvre, was found in the ancient city, along with an Asclepius now in London and a Poseidon and an archaic Apollo in Athens (en.wikipedia). The Archaeological Museum in Plaka shows finds from across the island, from the Neolithic to Late Antiquity, and a modern replica of the Venus, a work of the 1st century BC; a ticket is €5 (the operator).

Is it worth the trip?

Yes, if you are on Milos. The theatre and the catacombs are 250 m apart and make one visit, with the museum in Plaka nearby (OpenStreetMap; the operator). No operator publishes hours or a fee for the theatre; the catacombs close on Tuesdays (the operator).

Getting there

The theatre and the catacombs are near Trypiti: the catacombs are a 13-minute walk from the centre of Trypiti and 18 minutes from Plaka, and 15 minutes by car from Adamas, the island’s port (the operator). The bus stop “Katakombes (Arch. Theatro)” and two free car parks are close to both (OpenStreetMap). The museum is a 3-minute walk from the centre of Plaka (the operator).

Visiting details

Tickets
Ticketed

History

Dorian settlers founded the city in the 1st millennium BC. In the Peloponnesian War, Melos refused to side with Athens; in 416 BC the Athenians besieged and took it, killed the men, sold the women and children as slaves and settled 500 colonists of their own, and in 405 BC the Spartan general Lysander brought back the survivors. After Rome forced Philip V of Macedon out of Greece in 197 BC, Melos came under Roman influence (en.wikipedia). Under Rome the marble theatre was built, in the 1st to 4th centuries AD, and the city’s Christians buried their dead in the catacombs (the site’s board; the operator). The theatre went out of use probably in the 4th century, and the city lived on until the 6th or 7th century (the site’s board).

Sources

Every fact on this page comes from the records below, each used under the licence noted.

SourceLicence
Pleiades 570474CC BY
The site's board on the ancient city and the theatre, photographed 2023 (Wikimedia Commons)licence not recorded
Hellenic Heritage (H.O.C.R.E.D., for the Ministry of Culture) — Catacombs of Miloslicence not recorded
Hellenic Heritage (H.O.C.R.E.D., for the Ministry of Culture) — Archaeological Museum of Miloslicence not recorded
Wikipedia (en) — MilosCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Catacombs of MilosCC BY-SA 4.0
Wikipedia (en) — Achaia (Roman province)CC BY-SA 4.0