The Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates, god of the woodlands

Some ruins make sense on their own and others need context. The Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates is one of the latter, which is why I like seeing it right after Kourion. The city stood there; here, about 2 km away, is where its people came to pray to their god.

The sanctuary of the woodland god

For the Limassol tourist board it ranks among the most important religious centres in Cyprus, dedicated to Apollo in his role as god of the woodlands. Worship here had a remarkably long life, from the Bronze Age to the end of paganism, and the sanctuary changed over the centuries. The board identifies three main phases, an Archaic one in the 7th century BC, a Ptolemaic one in the 3rd century BC and a Roman one in the 1st century AD.

That succession of periods is what makes the visit interesting. You walk past remains from different moments of a single devotion, one that outlasted changes of kings and empires.

What you see

The picture everyone takes home is the corner of the temple that still stands, with two columns, their capitals and the stepped wall behind, as in the main photo on this page. The other photo shows it from below, the columns sharp against a blue sky. Around it lie the remains of the rest of the sanctuary, along what OpenStreetMap calls the Sacred Street.

I don’t have an official building-by-building description to quote, so I won’t detail every structure. My advice is to take your time around the temple, the part that’s easiest to read.

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The temple in 3D

Here’s something I think was well judged. The tourist board, as a partner in the European HERIT ADAPT project under the Interreg Euro-MED programme, commissioned Frederick University to produce a digital 3D model of the temple and its surroundings, including the stone base and the access stairs, using scanning and photogrammetry with sub-centimetre accuracy. The agreement was signed on 21 October 2024, and the aim is to use it for research, education and online platforms.

Opening times and tickets

No official source I can quote gives its opening hours or price, and I’d rather not give you made-up figures. Ask at the entrance or at the Limassol tourist office. According to OpenStreetMap, the sanctuary, like Kourion, lies within the Akrotiri Sovereign Base Area.

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Fitting it in

The sanctuary is about 2 km from Kourion theatre, about 3.5 km from Episkopi and around 16 km from Limassol, all as the crow flies. I’d do Kourion first, the sanctuary next and, if the morning allows, Kolossi Castle on the way back towards Limassol. For more ruins across the island, I’ve ranked them in archaeological sites in Cyprus.

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