Editing Paros (section)

==Marble quarries==
[[File:Parian marble quarry.JPG|thumb|The marble of the [[Venus de Milo]] is believed to have been extracted from this {{convert|100|m|ft|adj=mid|-long}} quarry.]]
[[Parian marble]], which is white and [[translucent]], with a coarse grain and a very beautiful texture, was the chief source of wealth for the island.<ref name=EB1911/> The celebrated marble quarries lie on the northern side of the mountain anciently known as Marathi (afterwards Capresso), a little below a former convent of [[St Mina]].<ref name=EB1911/> The marble, which was exported from the 6th century BC onwards, was used by [[Praxiteles]] and other ancient Greek [[sculpture|sculptors]]. It was obtained by means of subterranean quarries driven horizontally or at a descending angle into the rock.<ref name=EB1911/> The marble thus quarried by lamplight was given the name of Lychnites, Lychneus (from ''lychnos'', a lamp), or Lygdos.<ref name=EB1911/><ref>[[Pliny the Elder]] ''Historia Naturalis'' XXXVI. 5, 14; [[Plato]] ''Eryxias'', 400 D; Athenodorus V.205 f; Diodorus Siculus 2.52</ref> Several of these tunnels are still to be seen.<ref name=EB1911/> At the entrance to one of them is a bas-relief dedicated to [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]] and the [[nymph]]s.<ref name=EB1911/> Several attempts to work the marble have been made in modern times, but it has not been exported in any great quantities.<ref name=EB1911/> The major part of the remaining white marble is now state-owned and, like its [[Penteliko Mountain|Pentelic]] counterpart, is only used for archaeological restorations.

In December 1883 these quarries were visited by [[James Theodore Bent|Theodore]] and [[Mabel Bent]] during their tour of the Cyclades.<ref>“Next morning we went in a tram drawn by horses up to the quarry of marble... We were received by the engineer who took us down the quarry. We all had miners’ lamps, not very light to hold, and scrambled and slipped and crawled through the various passages up and down… At the entrance is a bas-relief of figures dedicated to the Nymphs. It is carefully covered with wood. The middle figures have been removed by someone...” Extract from ''The Travel Chronicles of Mrs J. Theodore Bent'', Vol. 1 (2006, Oxford, p.22). See also, Theodore Bent, ''The Cyclades, or Life Among the Insular Greeks'' (1885, London, pp.372 ff.).</ref>