Approaching the island by boat, the visitor will see two small islands to the left and right of the harbor, one with the little church of Myrtidiotissa, and the other called Palatia which is linked to Naxos Town.

The imposing gate, Portara as it is known by the local people, rises in splendid isolation above the town, the last relic of the ancient marble temple dedicated to Apollo which the Naxian tyrant Ligdamis ordered to be built in the god's honor in the 6th century B.C. For two and a half centuries now it has stood looking out towards the sacred island of Delos.

Archaeologists believe that the building of the temple was never completed because work on it had to stop when war broke out between Naxos and Samos, and thereafter it remained unfinished.