Kourion Archaeological Site
Greco-Roman city on a coastal bluff, with a restored theatre, mosaic houses, baths and a basilica.
Kourion occupies a limestone bluff above Episkopi Bay, roughly nineteen kilometres west of Limassol. The city-kingdom was established in the Iron Age and reached its widest extent under Roman rule, before earthquakes in the fourth century AD destroyed much of it. Systematic excavation began in 1933 under the University of Pennsylvania and has continued under the Department of Antiquities and foreign missions. The site is a protected monument and remains one of the most extensively uncovered classical settlements on the island.
The best known structure is the theatre, first cut into the hillside in the second century BC and rebuilt in Roman form during the second century AD, with a seating bowl of about three and a half thousand places looking out to sea. Around it are the House of Eustolios, an early Christian bathing complex with inscribed floor mosaics, the House of the Gladiators, the Roman agora and nymphaeum, and the fifth-century episcopal basilica. The Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates lies a short distance to the west.
Highlights
- Roman theatre carved into the hillside above Episkopi Bay
- Mosaic floors and bath suite of the House of Eustolios
- Combat scenes in the mosaics of the House of the Gladiators
- Fifth-century episcopal basilica with its baptistery and atrium
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
