Pafos Live 23 December 2025
The Department of Antiquities announces the completion of the archaeological excavation carried out by the mission of the University of Cyprus in Palaepaphos. Specifically, at the locations of Kouklia – Chatziaptoulla and Laona, under the direction of Professor Emeritus of Archaeology Maria Iakovou.
The excavation revealed large towers between the Laona tumulus and the Hatziaptoulla plateau. The towers belong to a large wall that is believed to have developed around the acropolis of the ancient city of Paphos in the Cypro-Classical period, i.e. in the 5th and 4th centuries. BC. The fieldwork was conducted in two phases (Spring and Autumn) and was completed at the end of October 2025. In addition to the regular collaborators of the Palaepaphos Urban Landscape Project (PULP), students of the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Cyprus – undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level – as well as many graduates of the ISA department are working on the excavations, data analysis and mapping of the results.
1. The palace complex in Hadjiaptoulla
2. The laboratory complex – west of the palace in Hadjiaptoullas.
3. The Laona tumulus and the 'pseudo-monument' found during the excavation of the southern part of the tumulus.
4. The large wall of Laona (5 meters wide) that was preserved along with its stairs under the north and east sides of the tumulus.
5. A complex of towers in the northeast corner of the palace in Hatziptoulla, which is part of the acropolis wall that protects the palace to the east and separates the administrative landscape from the landscape of the out-of-town necropolises of the ancient state.
Both the towers and the part of the wall that were discovered between the Laona tumulus and the plateau of Hadjiaptoulla are built with worked stones, which are preserved at a height of 1.40 to 2 meters. The new tower of Laona is almost square (9m x 8.80) and its walls are preserved at a height of 1.40m-1.50. However, the inner (west) façade of the wall, on which a wide staircase was found that would have ended in the roof of the tower, is preserved at a height of 2m. The staircase has stone handrails, while the steps were made with bricks. South of the staircase, a narrow stone arm is formed, just one meter wide, which ends at a formed angle. At this stage it is considered to be one of the two entrance-access arms inside the wall.
All the visible monuments that have been excavated between the years 2009 and 2025 at the sites of Laona and Hadjiaptoullas are a rare phenomenon of conservation-survival of ambitious and demanding projects to promote the political and economic power that the royal dynasty of Paphos had in the 5th and 4th centuries BC. Even rarer is the fact that no cluster of newer monuments was erected in these sites after 300 BC: the wall with its towers and the palace with its laboratory complex are found under 0.50 cm of embankments in the agricultural plots of Kouklia. Only the tumulus can have been completed in the 3rd century BC, after the transition of administration to Nea Paphos. Under its top (8 meters high) the northern staircase of the wall is preserved – along with its scallop – at a height of more than 4 meters.
