Choirokoitia

Choirokoitia was occupied from around the seventh millennium BC, in the aceramic Neolithic, before pottery reached the island, and its people lived in circular mudbrick and stone houses packed tightly on a hillside behind a substantial defensive wall. Excavation has produced burials under house floors, stone vessels, and evidence of a farming economy with imported animals, which tells you the settlers arrived by sea with livestock. At the entrance, five houses have been reconstructed at full size using the original techniques and materials, furnished as they might have been, which does more to convey how people lived here than the foundations above. The site climbs the slope, so the visit involves a steady walk up and back.

The main sights

• The reconstructed houses - five full-size replicas built with original methods at the entrance.
• The defensive wall - the substantial stone barrier enclosing the settlement.
• House foundations - circular structures packed along the hillside terraces.
• The hill view - across the valley from the top of the site.

When to go

October to May; the hillside is exposed and summer visits are hot with no shade. Mornings are best. The site is small and works well combined with Lefkara or the Kourion coast on the same day.

What to expect

Above the reconstructions, the site is foundations and low walls, and visitors who expect standing architecture find it modest. Interpretation is limited beyond the entrance area. The climb is steady rather than steep but there is no shade at all on the slope.

Nearby

Lefkara's lace-making village is nearby; Larnaca and its salt lake lie east.

Key facts