Byllis

Byllis stands on a plateau some five hundred metres above the Vjosa valley, founded as an Illyrian city in the fourth century BC with a wall circuit of about two and a quarter kilometres and thirty hectares inside, continuing under Rome as a colony and then as an important early Christian centre. What survives on the plateau is substantial: a theatre cut into the slope seating several thousand, the agora, a stadium, stretches of wall and gates, and five basilicas of the fifth and sixth centuries with mosaic floors, some of the largest and best in Albania, kept under cover. The position is the other half of it, with the whole Vjosa valley and the mountains laid out below. Visitor numbers are very low.

History

The Illyrian community of the Bylliones founded the city around 350 BC on a hill already settled in the century before, perhaps drawn by the bitumen mines at Selenica across the Vjosa valley, and walled it with ashlar 2.25 kilometres long and 3.5 metres wide around 30 hectares; an inscription of the 4th century BC at the oracle of Dodona, asking which god to sacrifice to, is the earliest mention of the Bylliones. Cassander of Macedon took the area in 314 BC, the Illyrian king Glaukias drove the Macedonians out two years later, and Pyrrhus and his son Alexander II of Epirus held it in turn, while the city's inscriptions, all in Greek, show the cults of Zeus, Hera, Dionysus and Artemis. In Roman times it lay in Epirus Nova, in the province of Macedonia, and on 7 April 2003 the Albanian government made it an archaeological park (Wikipedia, Byllis).

What's there

• A theatre cut into the slope - seating for several thousand.
• Five early Christian basilicas - with mosaic floors under shelters.
• Two kilometres of city wall - the Illyrian circuit around the plateau.
• The Vjosa valley below - a five-hundred-metre drop to the river.

When to go

April to October. Two to three hours. Mornings for light and temperature; the plateau has no shade. The road up is rough and slow. You will usually be alone on the site.

Good to know

The access road is poor and takes time from the main highway. There is no shade and no facilities. Mosaic shelters are sometimes locked and need a keeper. Interpretation is limited. Public transport does not reach it.

Nearby

Ballsh is north-east; Apollonia lies north-west.

Key facts