Cyclades

The Cyclades are a group of about 220 islands in the southern Aegean Sea, so called because they form a rough circle around the sacred island of Delos. They gave their name to the Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture, known for its marble figurines, and in later Greek history islands such as Naxos, Paros and Siphnos grew rich from marble, mining and trade. They became part of the modern Greek state in the 1830s.