A short trip to Phoenice

Phoenice was an ancient city, capital of the Chaonians. It is located on your right hand when you travel from Gjirokaster to Saranda, or on your left when you travel from Vlore to Saranda via the sea side.

I was always fascinated with the look of this hill. You've got mountains on both sides and in the middle there lies this hill like the back of a fish. You can't see anything from the main road but there are plenty of signs showing the way to the archaeological park. 

Leaving Saranda, after some 10 minutes driving toward Gjirokastra, there is a left turn leading to an unpaved road. No worries, it is unpaved for some 200 m. and after that begins the asphalt. On the left hand there is an old church which I couldn't photograph, I was the one driving. Then begins the modern village of Finiq. Somewhere in the middle of the village, there are sign, you have to take a right turn and follow the asphalted road up to the top of the hill. The road ends suddenly and there is a parking place for some 6-7 cars max, the one on the photo. That's my car :)

After following a narrow path, the remains of the ancient city walls appear. The stones are huge, it shows that there must have been something important to have such stones.

Unfortunately when you cross the walls there is only a field, with some minimalist excavating sites and some bunkers from the communism era. The next photo shows the Butrinti lake, as seen from the top of the hill.

   The view from all sides is fantastic.

The hill is quite elongated so there must be some other ruins to visit. Otherwise the place wouldn't have been called an archaeological park. After walking further north there are some walls but those don't look like from Roman times. Also, those look like half underground and surrounded by vegetation, are easy to miss if you look from distance.

After entering this sort of house, I see there are communism slogans on the walls. Those rooms must have been storage rooms for the soldiers while waiting for the cold war to begin, but they look older than that. Maybe it was some sort of livestock storage or some important person's house during the ottoman era. I suppose it was someone important since there were more than 3-4 rooms and always rich people lived in higher ground.

I suspect there must be more to see. I take out my smartphone and open google maps to have an aerial look of the hill. I see there is an amphitheater but there is no sign of it. I walk toward the edge of the hill, between thorns and there it is, midway down the slope.

There were some other artifacts as well but there are no photos unfortunately. If you travel near Phoenice it is worth visiting. Just search and read some info beforehand, to avoid feeling like you got ripped off. Ah, almost forgot, entrance is free :)