DESCRIPTION:

The worship of Apollo appears in Cyprus during the Cypro-Classical period. The oldest known Cypriot votive inscription referring to Apollo dates to the 5th century BC and comes from this very site. The text was found engraved on the base of a clay statuette depicting a squatting child (a temple-boy). His cult, however, was not the earliest worship practiced at this sanctuary; rather, it was assimilated with the cult of a pre-existing male deity, who is simply referred to as “god” in certain Cypro-syllabic inscriptions from the immediately preceding periods. In the 3rd century BC, Apollo is mentioned for the first time in votive inscriptions from the area with the epithet “Hylates”, meaning “protector of the woodland”.

The first Sanctuary to be established on the site includes the Archaic Precinct and the Circular Monument. In the Late Classical/Early Hellenistic period, the first Temple was built, consisting of a single rectangular building with two rooms, a cella and a prodomos. The Southern Building also dates to the same period. The temple was reconstructed during the time of Emperor Trajan and acquired a monumental form with a monumental staircase and a prostyle with four columns. It was then that the Palaestra was built, the Sacred Way was reconstructed and the Southern Building acquired two new spaces.

Its final destruction is placed in 365 AD century AD after a strong earthquake.