In antiquity, there were ten city-kingdoms in Cyprus. They were each distinct, and their inhabitants a veritable who’s-who of ancient civilizations, influences, and shifting allegiances: Mycenaean, Spartan, Phoenician, Assyrian, etc. The official tourist pamphlet at Vouni said something about Vouni’s inhabitants being aligned with the Persians (thus the “oriental” style of the first palace) and building Vouni to spy on nearby Soli. I found this Princeton article that seems to align with that narrative by saying one working theory is that inhabitants of the city-kingdom of Marion built Vouni, but then it immediately casts doubt and says it is possible Vouni was somehow connected to Soli. So the short answer is, archeologists don’t really know what this place was about, but they do know the first constructions started here between 500 and 480 BC, which makes it a very old palace.
For the most part all that is left of the palace is a series of low walls (which are very enthusiastically labeled with somewhat invasive signage, I’ve had to carefully select the photos that don’t have half a dozen little signs sticking out of the ground). The central court of the palace did have this notable altar stone, perhaps with a water basin below it? If it was a sacred place, the ancients couldn’t have picked a much better location– more than 240 degrees of eastern Med views and perfect line of sight over the Morphou Bay.
Another of the unusual features was this figure eight-shaped stone cistern, carved out of stone:
Spectacular views of Cyprus northwestern coast:
Two out of the three readers of this blog have complained that I do not appear in enough of the pictures, so I will indulge you! Happily standing in the doorway for scale (it lead nowhere, I just liked the pointy arch!)
And here is the dearest husband, standing by some immense stone blocks in one of the three parallel rooms:
