Editing Delphi (section)

===Abandonment and rediscovery===
The [[Ottoman Turks|Ottomans]] finalized their domination over [[Phocis (ancient region)|Phocis]] and Delphi in about 1410 AD. Delphi itself remained almost uninhabited for centuries. It seems that one of the first buildings of the early modern era was the monastery of the [[Dormition of Mary]] or of [[Panagia]] (the Mother of God) built above the ancient [[gymnasium at Delphi]]. It must have been toward the end of the fifteenth or in the sixteenth century that a settlement started forming there, which eventually ended up forming the village of [[Kastri, Phocis|Kastri]].

[[Ottoman Delphi]] gradually began to be investigated. The first Westerner to describe the remains in Delphi was [[Cyriacus of Ancona]], a fifteenth-century merchant turned diplomat and antiquarian, considered the founding father of modern classical archeology.<ref>Edward W. Bodnar, ''Later travels'', with Clive Foss</ref> He visited Delphi in March 1436 and remained there for six days. He recorded all the visible archaeological remains based on [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] for identification. He described the stadium and the theatre at that date as well as some freestanding pieces of sculpture. He also recorded several inscriptions, most of which are now lost. His identifications, however, were not always correct: for example he described a round building he saw as the [[temple of Apollo (Delphi)|temple of Apollo]] while this was simply the base of the Argives' ex-voto. A severe earthquake in 1500 caused much damage.

In 1766, an English expedition funded by the [[Society of Dilettanti]] included the Oxford epigraphist [[Richard Chandler (antiquary)|Richard Chandler]], the architect [[Nicholas Revett]], and the painter [[William Pars]]. Their studies were published in 1769 under the title ''Ionian Antiquities'',<ref>Chandler, R, Revett, N., Pars, W., Ionian Antiquities, London 1769</ref> followed by a collection of inscriptions,<ref>Chandler, R, Revett, N., Pars, W., Inscriptiones antiquae, pleraeque nondum editae, in Asia Minore et Graecia, praesertim Athensis, collectae, Oxford, 1774</ref> and two travel books, one about Asia Minor (1775),<ref>Chandler, R, Revett, N., Pars, W., Travels in Asia Minor, Oxford, 1775.</ref> and one about Greece (1776).<ref>Chandler, R, Revett, N., Pars, W., Travels in Greece, Oxford, 1776.</ref> Apart from the antiquities, they also related some vivid descriptions of daily life in Kastri, such as the crude behaviour of the Muslim Albanians who guarded the mountain passes.{{citation needed|date=July 2023}}

In 1805 [[Edward Dodwell]] visited Delphi, accompanied by the painter Simone Pomardi.<ref>''A classical and topographical tour through Greece'', London 1819</ref> [[Lord Byron]] visited in 1809, accompanied by his friend [[John Cam Hobhouse]]:

<blockquote>Yet there I've wandered by the vaulted rill
Yes! Sighed o'er Delphi's long deserted shrine,
where, save that feeble fountain, all is still.</blockquote>

He carved his name on the same column in the gymnasium as [[George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen|Lord Aberdeen]], later Prime Minister, who had visited a few years before. Proper excavation did not start until the late nineteenth century (see "Excavations" section) after the village had moved.