Delos - Sacred Lake / Marble Lions

The oval Sacred Lake (now dry), on the shores of which Leto was believed to have given birth to Apollo, marks the end of the Sacred Precinct at Delos. On a terrace to the west of the lake is a row of

nine marble lions of Naxian marble (seventh century B.C.). In this area, to the north of the lake, were the Old and the New Palaistra (courtyards surrounded by colonnades). Farther northeast are the sanctuary of the Heros Archegetes, which only Delians might enter, the Gymnasion and the Stadion, with its northwest side built against the rock.