Description of the attraction
The city of Amathus, or as it was also called Amaphunt, is one of the most ancient settlements in Cyprus. It was located in the southern part of the island on the Mediterranean coast.
The history of Amathus is more than 2 thousand years old, and its founder is considered to be Kinir, the first king of Cyprus and the father of Adonis. He is also the founder of the cult of Aphrodite on the island. According to one version, the city was named after his mother Amatea (Amathus), according to another version, on the site of the city there used to be a grove of the same name, where she died during the birth of a child and Ariadne was buried after her beloved Theseus abandoned her.
Due to its extremely convenient location, Amathus almost immediately after its inception turned into a commercial and economic center of the island. A port was built in a convenient natural harbor, which facilitated the development of trade with the Levant (the territory of modern Palestine, Syria and Lebanon) and Greece - they mainly traded in grain, copper and wool.
Later, the city became a battlefield more than once, and after its conquest by Alexander the Great, it gradually lost its economic importance. With the advent of Christianity to the island, the cult of Aphrodite and Adonis also faded away.
At the moment, only ruins remain on the site of this ancient city. The first excavations there were begun at the end of the 19th century by the American archaeologist and military man Luigi Palma di Chesnola, who donated all his finds to the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum. More seriously, archaeologists took up Amathus only 100 years later, and to this day this ancient city never ceases to amaze them with its treasures. So, scientists discovered the temple of Aphrodite (in total, two temples were built on the territory of the city in honor of this goddess, who began to be considered the patroness of Amathus, but, unfortunately, one of them was never completed), the acropolis, the port, the basilica and the city wall … The found values added to the collection of the Cyprus Museum, which is located in Nicosia.
