Kition (Ancient Greek: Κίτιον, Kition; Latin: Citium;[4] Egyptian: kꜣṯꜣj;[3] Phoenician: 𐤊𐤕‎, KT,[5][6] or 𐤊𐤕𐤉‎, KTY;[7][8][9]) was an ancient Phoenician and Greek city-kingdom on the southern coast of Cyprus (in present-day Larnaca), one of the Ten city-kingdoms of Cyprus.

[10][better source needed] During the Late Bronze Age, the area was settled by Mycenaean Greeks who exploited the local copper deposits.

[12] Around 1000 BC, the religious part of the city was abandoned, although life seems to have continued in other areas as indicated by finds in tombs.

[13]Literary evidence suggests an early Phoenician presence also at Kition which was under Tyrian rule at the beginning of the 10th century BC.

[16] Marguerite Yon claims that literary texts and inscriptions suggest that by the Classical period Kition was one of the principal local powers, along with its neighbour Salamis.

Ptolemy I conquered Cyprus in 312 BC and killed Poumyathon, the Phoenician king of Kition, and burned the temples.

[19] However, a trading colony from Kition established at Piraeus had prospered to the point that, in 233 BC they requested and received permission for the construction of a temple dedicated to Astarte".

A curator civitatis, or financial administrator of the city, was sent to Kition from Rome during the rule of Septimius Severus.

[1] Kition was first systematically[22] excavated by the Swedish Cyprus Archaeological Expedition from October 1929 (under the direction of Einar Gjerstad) until April 1930.

In 1879 the Government of Cyprus filled this marshy area with soil from the upper strata of the Bamboula Hill because they wished to get rid of the malaria mosquitos.

[23] The Swedish archaeologists attempted a stratigraphic examination of the Bamboula mound to obtain information about the dating of the Phoenician colonization of Cyprus.

But, after three days of digging, they found a large deposit of sculptures and needed to subsequently enlarge the excavation.

[23] According to The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, the acropolis commenced as a settlement from the end of the Late Cypriote II and the beginning of Cypro Geometric I period before it became a sanctuary.

Later, the cult erected a rectangular altar made of rubble and chips of stone in front of the statue.

[23] During the excavation, they found no inscriptions that could inform us to whom this sanctuary was dedicated, although some of the sculptures might represent the god and thence give us an answer.

[24] Einar Gjerstad explains the reason why the temenos were never rebuilt as a consequence of the last king of Kition, Pumiatihon.

[36] Two important stele with inscriptions in the Phoenician script were found in the Turabi Tekke cemetery in the late nineteenth century.