FORMER EDESSA SITE

Excavations at the Edessa site have revealed the presence of small rural dwellings. The village would have been transformed over the centuries to become, at the end of the classical period, a fortified and prosperous city, composed of an acropolis whose foundations are located on the site of the current Edessa and a lower town that extended at the foot of the rock in the fertile plain of Longos. The acropolis was protected by a triangular fortification that included the waterfalls.

The lower town apparently covered an area of about 20 ha and was then protected by a colossal rampart 1,200 m in circumference built during the Hellenistic period. Today, some of the remaining walls reach a height of 5 m. They are pierced by doors, one of which, to the south, is the best preserved. From this door comes a long paved street on either side of which archaeologists have uncovered many buildings dating back to the Hellenistic, Roman and even Early Christian period: workshops, storage stores, residences... We also discovered two ancient early Christian basilicas, one of which is located outside the enclosure. Inscriptions found on the site provide us with information about the cults that were celebrated in the city: Zeus, Dionysus, Heracles... Then, from the early Christian era onwards, the lower city was gradually abandoned in favour of the upper city.