Enkomi
Engomi Harabeleri · Gazimağusa
Tier IV · Also here
A Bronze Age copper-trading city, widely identified with Alasia.
What to see at Enkomi
- The ruins keep a grid of streets crossing at right angles, with buildings founded on large cut stone blocks.
- A strong wall ringed the city, and a central square was paved with stone slabs.
- Excavations found copper ingots shaped like ox-hides, slag, scrap bronze and smiths' tools.
History of Enkomi
- 18th century BC
- Enkomi rises to importance, working copper and exporting it as ingots.
- 14th century BC
- In the Amarna letters Alasia's king promises the pharaoh copper; some scholars place Alasia at Enkomi.
- About 1200 BC
- The city is destroyed and rebuilt; most ruins seen today belong to the rebuilding.
- 1075 BC
- After an earthquake, its people gradually move to the coast and found Salamis.
Visiting Enkomi
Allow about an hour. Enkomi (Engomi) lies near Tuzla, about 7.9 km north-west of Gazimağusa (Famagusta), reached by Derviş Vaiz Caddesi. No car park is mapped nearby and no bus stop within about 500 m.
Monuments near Enkomi
- St Barnabas MonasteryThe monastery of the island's patron saint, now an icon and archaeology museum.
- Royal Tombs of SalamisMonumental chariot burials of the kings of Salamis.
- SalamisThe great classical city of the island, by the sea.