Most of ancient Kition lies under modern Larnaca, and thus cannot be excavated, though the Swedes under Einar Gjersud began to make attempts during the 1920s. The British had made matters worse in 1879 by carting offmuch of what had survived above ground -"rubble" as they called it -to fill malarial marshes. Their depredations were severest at the ancient acropolis on Bambowa hill, directly behind the Archeological Museum in fenced-off parkland; conse- quently there's lirtle to see except for a nearby dig site -possibly the Phoenician port, far inland from today's shoreline -next to the municipal tennis courts on Kilkis street. So-called Areas I and III, at the north end of Kimonos opposite the weird, top-heavy belfry ofPanayia Khrysopolitissa church, are Late Bronze Age holes in the ground -of essentially specialist interest now that they have disgorged their treasures.
The one exception to this inaccessibility is the so-called Area ll, beyond Arkhiepiskopou Kyprianou, from which you ~rn up Kerkyras to reach the gate at the northwest corner of the site (Mon-Fri 9am-2.3Opm, Sept--June also Thurs 3-5pm; C£0.75), where a wooden catwalk is provided for an overview of ongoing excavations. The Phoenician resertlement sits atop Late Bronze Age foundations, abutting the mixed mud-brick and stone wall which bounded Kition to the north. The main structures are a large ashlar-based shrine, rededicated to the fertility goddess Astarte in Phoenician times, and four smaller earlier temples, one of them linked to the smelting workshops found here, suggesting, if not worship of a copper deity, then at least a priestly interest in copper production. In another of the shrines, thought to be that of a masculine seafaring god, a pipe for the ritual smoking of opium was discovered. Few Hellenistic or Roman artefacts were found, making the site unusual and archeologically important -as well as politically delicate, since Greek Cypriots are often less than enthusiastic about remains indicating Asiatic cultural origins.
