Kourion Complex (Apollo) post 1945 (1 of 2)

The Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates at Curium (Kourion) A brief provisional guide to the principle buildings.

The Curium (Kourion) expedition of the university of Pennsylvania Museum under the general direction of Mr. Bert Hodge Hill, Director Emeritus of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, began excavations at Curium on a limited scale in 1934 and has continued work, with a break during the war, intermittently on various sites in and around the ancient city on the bluff of Curium.

The Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates (Apollo of the Woodland) is pleasantly situated in Episkopi forest about 12 miles west of the modern port of Limassol and at about two miles west of ancient Curium in the country outside the city walls (map fig. 1). The sanctuary lies at an altitude of 443 feet behind a series of imposing white cliffs on Episkopi Bay. It was from one of these, the ancient geographer Strabo informs us, writing in the time of Augustus, that those who touched the altar of the god were flung into the sea. Traces of two walls leading from the sanctuary to one of these cliffs, about half a mile to the south, lend support to this tradition. Aelian (170-235 A.D.) writes that the country round about Apollo's famous precinct was a reserve for deer. This statement finds interesting support in a number of coins from recent excavations. The coin type bears on the obverse the head of Apollo, and on the reverse, a deer with suckling foal. Such a type is listed in the British Museum Catalogue of coins as being of unknown origin. It would seem now that they came from Curium. Our coins of this type date to the 4th century B.C.