The island is 40 km from the Thracian coast and occupies a strategic position on the sea route to the Dardanelles.
In Mikro Vouni, residential remains have been identified from the final Neolithic to the end of the Middle Bronze Age (3500 - 1600 BC). During the Early Bronze Age, the type of tripartite oblong house with an arched last room appears. Among the rich mobile finds (decorated pottery, anthropomorphic vessels, figurines, stone and bone tools), Minoan seals that indicate direct contacts and trade relations with Crete. Pre-Hellenic traces in worship and language were preserved until the 1st century BC.
Around 700 BC Aeolian settlers, perhaps from Lesbos or Troad, established in the NW. coast of the city (Paleiopolis area) and further west the famous sanctuary of the Great Gods (6 km. from Kamariotissa). In Paleopolis, a rampart cyclopean wall is preserved and ceramics from the Late Bronze Age (15th - 10th centuries BC) were found. A settlement of the early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC) has been investigated on a hill east of the ancient city.
In the acropolis, strong walls from Archaic and Hellenistic times are preserved further west, near the "Xenia" hotel, rich Archaic burials. The island was plundered by pirates in 84 BC and the city was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1st century. A.D.
In the archaeological site of Palaiapolis, the cultic and public buildings of the complex related to the worship of the Great Gods and the performance of the Kaverian Mysteries are preserved in ruins.
The first excavations in the Holy Space date from 1863. The most important archaeological remains are the Palace with the Holy House, the Arsinoeium in the shape of a Rotunda, the Mosque, the Sanctuary, the Theater, the Altar, the House of Dedications, the Stoa, the Victory Fountain, the Cemetery, the building of the kings Philip III and Alexander IV and the Propyla of Ptolemy II.
The Archaeological Museum exhibits many architectural members, parts of the sculptural decoration and inscriptions from the buildings of the sanctuary, as well as various categories of finds from the archaeological sites and cemeteries of the island. Foundations of an early Christian basilica next to the ancient port, in the place where, according to tradition, the apostle Paul landed on his way from Troy.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou