Kourion

Kourion stands on a limestone bluff almost 100 metres above Episkopi Bay, on the south coast of Cyprus, looking straight out to sea. Tradition held that it was founded by settlers from Argos in the Peloponnese, and the Kouris valley below it had been settled since the Neolithic. By the Archaic period Kourion was one of the island's city-kingdoms, with its own rulers named in Assyrian and Greek records: a king of Kourion appears on the prism of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon in 672 BCE, and another, Stasanor, notoriously changed sides during the Ionian Revolt against Persia. Later it passed to the Ptolemies and then to Rome, which is when most of what visitors now see was built.

The theatre, cut into the slope with the sea behind it, began as a smaller Hellenistic building and was enlarged under Trajan to seat about 3,500; it has been heavily restored and is used again for performances, including the International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama. Across the site are Roman buildings with fine mosaic floors: the House of Eustolios, rebuilt as a public bath in the early fifth century with a mosaic inscription welcoming visitors; the House of Achilles, with a panel showing Odysseus unmasking the young Achilles; and the House of the Gladiators, whose fighting scenes are the only gladiator mosaics known on Cyprus. A little west of the acropolis are the stadium, the only excavated stadium on the island, and the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates, Apollo of the woodlands, whose temple dates from the first century CE.

Kourion's most affecting evidence comes from its end. A series of earthquakes around 365 to 370 CE flattened much of the city, and excavators of the so-called Earthquake House found its occupants where the ruins caught them, including a young family and a mule still tethered in its stall. The city was rebuilt as a Christian town with a large cathedral on the cliff edge, but Arab raids in the mid-seventh century finished it, and the population moved inland to Episkopi. The archaeological area lies inside the British Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and is managed by the Cyprus Department of Antiquities.

Getting there

Kourion is about 10 km from Káto Polemídia on the western edge of Limassol and about 14 km from central Limassol, reached by road towards Paphos. The nearest airport is Paphos International (PFO), 37.3 km away; Larnaca International (LCA), the island's main airport, is about 71 km.