The central Aegean island of Paros was a major source of high-quality white marble through the Archaic, Classical and Roman periods. A variety of white marbles were quarried here but the most prestigious was the almost translucent lychnites marble. This was especially popular for statuary and was extracted from underground galleries accessed via tunnels in the area around Marathi. Parian marble was widely exported, notably to Rome but statues carved in it have been found at many large Roman urban centres.