Kition Archaeological Site - Phoenician City Ruins

The ancient Phoenician city of Kition, featuring the Temple of Aphrodite-Astarte built by Phoenician masons in the 9th century BC - the same craftsmen who built Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. The Kathari and Bamboula sites reveal temples, copper workshops, and a 5th-century BC Phoenician warship harbour.

What to do there

5 things to do

1. 1 Find the Five Temples Where Astarte Was Worshipped Beside a Copper Foundry History · Price: low

   You're standing inside a Phoenician city that was already 400 years old when Rome was founded. In the 9th century BCE, settlers from Tyre sailed west and built five temples at the Kition Kathari Site (Archbishop Kyprianou Avenue, Larnaca, €2.50 entrance) — the largest measuring 35 by 22 metres, constructed with ashlar blocks so perfectly fitted they required no mortar. But here's what stops people cold: four of these temples are directly connected to copper smelting workshops. The goddess Astarte wasn't just worshipped here — she presided over the metalworkers who were forging the bronze age economy of the eastern Mediterranean. Walk the garden path that connects the excavated areas and look for Temple 1's south wall, where ancient sailors scratched ship graffiti directly into the limestone, probably before a voyage. The cyclopean walls in the northeast corner — blocks so large the Greeks later thought giants built them — are from the 13th century BCE, four centuries BEFORE the Phoenicians arrived.

   Backup: If the Kathari gate is closed, walk 500m south to the Bamboula site (same ticket), where active French excavations are ongoing and the outline of Phoenician ship sheds is visible in the earth.

   Log Memory
2. 2 Read the Inscription That Proved 7 Cypriot Kings Paid Tribute to Assyria — Then the Original Was Shipped to Berlin History · Free

   In the autumn of 1845, a farmer digging in Larnaca turned up a stone stele covered in cuneiform script. It was the victory monument of Sargon II of Assyria, erected in 709 BCE at Kition after the seven kings of Cyprus voluntarily sent him gold and silver tribute. Sargon had it carved right here, at Kition, in the language of Mesopotamia, at the edge of the known world. The original was shipped to Berlin's State Museums, where it remains today. The replica at the Larnaca District Archaeological Museum (Kalogairon Square, 500-metre walk south from the Kathari site) carries the real story. The inscription names "the Seven Kings of the Land of Ia" (Cyprus) and the distant islands of Iatnana (Greece). This is a single stone object that spans three empires — Assyrian, Cypriot, and Phoenician — standing in the same city. The museum is small and walkable in 30–40 minutes.

   Backup: If the museum is closed, the replica Sargon Stele is the primary draw — its absence doesn't diminish the Kathari and Bamboula sites, which are the richer experience anyway.

   Log Memory
3. 3 Stand Where the Philosopher Who Taught Marcus Aurelius Was Born — After His Ship Sank and He Lost Everything Adventure · Free

   In 334 BCE — the same year Alexander the Great became king — a boy was born in this city, in a Phoenician merchant family. His father Mnaseas traded Tyrian purple dye, liquid gold literally worth its weight in prestige. At about age 22, the boy was sailing a cargo of purple from Cyprus to Athens when a storm sank his ship. He lost everything, washed up at Piraeus, wandered into a bookseller's shop, and picked up Xenophon's Memorabilia — dialogues about Socrates. When he finished, he asked the bookseller: "Where can I find men like this?" The bookseller pointed out the window at a passing philosopher. Zeno followed him, never returned to Cyprus or trade, and spent the next 40 years teaching at the Stoa Poikile in Athens — creating Stoicism, the philosophy that shaped Marcus Aurelius. His bronze statue stands in Europa Square at the southern end of the Finikoudes promenade (800m southeast from the Kathari site). Then walk across to Vinaria wine bar and drink a glass of Commandaria — the wine that was already old when Zeno was born here.

   Backup: If you can't locate the Europa Square statue, the Larnaka Historic Archives Museum on the promenade also has a Zeno statue and a small display on his history.

   Log Memory
4. 4 Drink the Wine That Won 'The Battle of the Wines' in the 13th Century — At the City That Exported It to the Pharaohs Wine · Price: low

   The wine you want is Commandaria. Hesiod described it in 800 BCE — before the Phoenicians even settled Kition. The Phoenician port of Kition exported this style of dried-grape wine to Egypt and the Aegean in their amphorae, and Cyprus became synonymous with sweet wine for a thousand years. In 1191 AD, King Richard the Lionheart drank it at his own wedding in Limassol and declared it "the wine of kings and the king of wines." In the 13th century, it won "The Battle of the Wines" — a formal competition held across all of Europe. It has been in continuous production since at least 800 BCE, making it the world's oldest named wine still being made today. At Vinaria wine bar (Q City Centre, D.N. Dimitriou Street, near the Finikoudes promenade, +357 24 400 077), ask for Commandaria by name. If they have Karseras Family Edition (around €15 a bottle), that's one of the benchmark expressions. Drink it slowly and remember: the Phoenicians who built the Astarte temple at Kition were shipping this wine in clay jars to the Pharaoh of Egypt 2,500 years before this glass was poured.

   Backup: If Vinaria is closed, the Oak Tree Wine Cellar & Tasting Room in Larnaca offers Cypriot wine tastings with the owner walking you through the selection personally.

   Log Memory
5. 5 Watch the Active Dig Where 100 Phoenician Inscriptions Were Unearthed in 2025 Adventure · Price: low · Optional

   In October 2025 — four months ago — the French Archaeological Mission working at Bamboula Hill (500m south of the Kathari main entrance, same €2.50 ticket) unearthed more than 100 Phoenician inscribed pottery sherds representing roughly 75 separate texts. These are ostraca: broken pottery used as notepaper in the ancient world, found in a dumping area where the temple administration discarded its records at the end of the 4th century BCE — a Phoenician archive, in fragments, lying in the earth beneath modern Larnaca for 2,300 years. The excavation team is still translating them. This dig is ongoing. Also visible at Bamboula: the stone footings of 6 neoria (warship ship sheds), each 6 metres wide and 38-39 metres long, where Phoenician triremes were hauled out of the water to dry under tiled roofs. Enter Bamboula from the gate near Kalogairon Square and look for the northwest sector where the 2025 finds came from.

   Backup: Even if the active dig trenches are roped off, the Bamboula site itself and the adjacent museum are worth 45 minutes combined. The museum holds all the major finds from both excavation areas.

   Log Memory

Insider tips

• Visit both Kathari (Area II) and Bamboula sites for the full picture

• Hire a guide at the entrance - the layered ruins span 4,000 years

• The Larnaca District Museum displays many Phoenician artifacts from the site