The second-largest town is Artemonas, thought to be named after an ancient temple of Apollo's sister Artemis, located at the site of the church of Panayia Kokhi.

[4] Sifnos lies in the Cyclades between Serifos and Milos, west of Delos and Paros, about 130 km (81 mi) (80 nautical miles) from Piraeus (Athens' port).

The island is served by the ferries which run on the Piraeus – Kythnos – Serifos – Sifnos – Milos – Kimolos line and via Naxos.

[6] Archeological evidence indicates the island was within the mainstream of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Cycladic civilization.

According to Pausanias, these mines were obliterated by floods in ancient times, a disaster which some attributed to the people of the island suspending their tribute out of greed.

In the fifth century BCE, Sifnos was an official member of the Greek defensive alliance formed to fight the Persian Wars.

In the early 14th century Sifnos came under the power of the Italian or Spanish Hospitaller Januli I da Corogna, who proclaimed the island independent from the Sanudo dynasty which then ruled most of the Cyclades area.

Though both these dynasties became thoroughly Hellenized, they retained their Roman Catholic form of religion, and during the 1800s the Sifniotes continued to take pride in their Latin ancestry.

It seems likely that, as in most of the Cyclades, Ottoman rule on Sifnos was fairly loose, consisting mainly of the collection of taxes, with the islanders largely administering their own affairs.

By the early 17th century Sifnos was a significant commercial center, and from 1821 the island played an important role in the Greek War of Independence.

Omega3, a high-end seafood restaurant located in the southern seaside town of Platys Gialos, offers sushi and other non-traditional dishes.