Book tickets at the best rates!

Kition
Larnaca and surrounding
Architecture,  Archeology, Civilization history
Architecture, 
Archeology, Civilization history

Not everyone who comes to Larnaca knows that they are entering one of the oldest cities in the world. Several thousand years ago, on the site of modern Larnaca, stood the city of Kition. It is one of the first megalopolises known from ancient history books.

There is evidence that the city was founded in the 13th century BC by Kittim, the great-grandson of the biblical Noah. At first, it was a small village with a few houses, which literally within a hundred years grew into a real city-state, which was known far beyond the borders of Cyprus.

Kition became the center for the civilization of the Mycenaean Greeks, who valued culture, science, and art. They made an almost perfect city. But they didn't take one thing into account: earthquakes were frequent in the area. Because of that, the buildings collapsed, the water supply required regular repairs, and it was very expensive to maintain beauty and luxury. So after the golden age of Kition, the Greeks slowly deserted it, and the Phoenicians took their place and restored and remodeled the buildings, giving them their unique image.

In its long history, Kition survived a huge number of invasions. It was conquered by the Persians, the Egyptians, and the Arabs. It was ruled by the Genoese and Venetian merchants. And each time, after oblivion or wars, the city was reborn to become even stronger and more beautiful.

Today Kition is part of Larnaca and is the oldest architectural monument in the country. Thanks to the efforts of scientists, a huge number of ancient buildings were discovered here, incredible artifacts were found, which are now presented in museums around the world.

Walking around the corners of ancient Kition, you can peek into the restored workshops, admire the thickness of the defense walls, which have survived more than a millennium, marvel at the beauty of the tombs, decorated with the finest carvings, and enjoy the splendor of five huge temples, which, even in the present state, can blow your mind.

Address: Kition

Published by

Anna Sh

All content and media files are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Rating based on 0 reviews
Favoured:
0
Already
6 images
of the Kition
on 7toucans
See on the map

Book and buy tickets at the best rates!

Best hotels in Larnaca!

We use cookies to improve our website and your experience when using it. Cookies used for the essential operation of this site have already been set.To find out more about the cookies we use and how to delete them, see our privacy policy including cookie use

 I accept cookies from this site.