Excavations at Alassa by Cypriot archaeologists in the early 1980s unearthed the ruins of a Bronze Age city. Among other findings were the remains of a palace, suggesting that the site once had a much greater importance as a local trading center.[2]
The site has been proposed as one candidate for the capital of Alashiya, a major kingdom mentioned as a member of the club of great powers in numerous Bronze Age texts. This identification was suggested on the basis of the similarity in names, but is supported by independent evidence including petrographic and chemical analyses of clay tablets sent by the king of Alashiya, which indicates that their clay came from southwestern Cyprus. Other candidates for the capital include Kalavasos.[3][4]
Roman villas have also been found there, a mosaic floor depicting Aphrodite and Eros from one of which is in the Limassol museum.[5]
Alassa has been developed in modern times as a park-like tourist centre.
^Goren, Yuval; Bunimovitz, Shlomo; Finkelstein, Israel; Na'aman, Nadav (2003). "The location of Alashiya: new evidence from petrographic investigation of Alashiyan tablets from El-Amarna and Ugarit". American Journal of Archaeology. 107 (2): 233–255.
