File:Delphi01.jpg

English: A row of shops from the Roman period at Delphi. The shops originally stood along the back of a colonnade (stoa). This small agora (marketplace) stood near the entrance to the sacred way leading up to the temple of Apollo. Among other things, the shops would have sold votive objects and figurines that devotees could offer to the deity when they came seeking advice from the Delphic Oracle. The remains of the temple are visible in the distance, further up the slope, where four thick pillars still stand. The walls of the shops are constructed using characteristic Roman techniques. The earliest, called "opus incertum", is a simple concrete wall filled with rubble and faced with irregular stones set into the cement. Also visible here is the "opus reticulatum" technique, in which bricks are set into the faces of a concrete wall instead of irregular stones. The bricks of opus reticulatum were often placed on angle, creating a network of diamond shapes. A hybrid technique, predominant in these shops, was called "opus mixtum." This involves alternating sections of ordinary opus incertum construction with narrow bands of inset brick, giving the walls a striped appearance.