Cyprus - Amathous

Mission

The city: Amathous is an ancient city (acropolis, lower city) and a harbour located at the centre of the southern coast of Cyprus. It was established around 750 BC, with a royal palace, the sanctuary of Aphrodite, an agora (temples, baths, large fountain, stoae), and a wall. An excavation mission has been ongoing since 1975, conducted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ecole Française d’Athènes (French Archaeological School of Athens) under the direction of Pierre Aupert and Antoine Hermary.

The archaeological site:

Amathous is in a remarkable position. The city was erected at a location easily visible from the sea, on an easily accessible coast, about a dozen kilometres east of Lemesos (Limassol). The asymmetrical hill where the acropolis sits made it possible to control land traffic following the coastline. The site is situated well away from the large valleys of the Troodos Mountains, and thus protected from the floods of their waterways. On the other hand, it is only separated from the mountains, forests and copper deposits by easy-to-climb hills.

The acropolis always served as a means of defence. We now know that the escarpment was fortified with walls. The acropolis also helped protect the lower city, which extended directly north into the Verka meadow, where an aqueduct (4) ended, and to the east onto a lower hill in a silted-up bayhead. It was there that elements of a natural mooring (22) were found, perhaps transformed into a port due to the regional importance of Amathous, prior to the construction of the major port of the Hellenistic period. The docks are still visible ahead of the current coastline.