ORIKUM ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

This site (Parku Arkeologjik i Orikumit) has few fine remains. But it does enjoy a delightful setting, on a wooded hillside between the bay of Vlora and the small lagoon of Pashalima, beneath the enormous Karaburun peninsula. This is the ancient Greek city of Orikos, renamed Oricum by the Romans. Of the great ancient city, only the Paleokastra ("old fortress") hill is open to visitors (military zone, identity check). Many of the remains bear the scars of destruction caused by Julius Caesar's siege in 49 BC. Gates, ramparts and dwellings have been identified, as well as a temple dedicated to Dionysus (^1st century BC). Some of the houses (^3rd century BC) feature silos cut into the stone and used to store food. Archaeologists, however, have long been puzzled by the huge ^1st-century BC stone structure on the eastern side of the hill. Was it a theater? It wasn't until 2013 that Swiss archaeologists proved it was a monumental nymph (fountain). As for the "wall" jutting out into the sea at the entrance to the site, it is thought to be the harbour jetty described by Julius Caesar. Finally, the square monoptery unearthed in 2012 on the northwest face of the hill is without parallel in the Greek world. A temple consisting of a single row of columns, a monopterus is usually circular, sometimes rectangular. Here, its square shape is the only known example.