Kourion

About this place

An ancient Greek city on a limestone bluff nearly 100 m above Episkopi Bay, about 13 km west of Limassol. Greek settlers from Argos arrived in the twelfth century BC, and a violent earthquake destroyed the city in 365 AD. Its best-known monument is the Greco-Roman theatre facing the sea, built in the second century BC and enlarged in the second century AD, now restored for summer performances and concerts. There is also the House of Eustolios, with fifth-century mosaic floors and an inscription at the entrance welcoming visitors, baths with cold and warm rooms, the early-third-century agora, a fifth-century Early Christian basilica and, a kilometre to the west, an ancient stadium. Wooden walkways and shelters shade parts of the site, but the summer sun is fierce, so come in the morning or before sunset, when the cliffs and the sea look their best.