History of the Cyclades strongest, not only for the Cyclades, but for all the Aegean islands, with over 1.5 beds per inhabitant. However, at the archipelago level, the tourist load is heavier in the Dodecanese. This is due to the fact that the islands of the Cyclades are smaller and less populated than the other islands, so the load on an individual island is stronger than for the archipelago as a whole. In the 2006 season, the Cyclades received 310,000 visitors of 11.3 million coming to Greece as a whole; the Cyclades had 1.1 million overnight stays while the country had 49.2 million—an occupancy
History of the Cyclades houses had flat roofs made of schist slabs covered up with clay and truncated corners designed to allow beasts of burden to pass by more easily. From the 8th century BC, the Cyclades experienced an apogee linked in great part to their natural riches (obsidian from Milos and Sifnos, silver from Syros, pumice stone from Santorini and marble, chiefly from Paros). This prosperity can also be seen from the relatively weak participation of the islands in the movement of Greek colonisation, other than Santorini's establishment of Cyrene. Cycladic cities celebrated their prosperity through great sanctuaries: the treasury of Sifnos, the