Soli, Cyprus

Soli (ancient Greek: Soloi) is an ancient city on the northwest coast of Cyprus in Morphou Bay, one of the island's ten city-kingdoms. Traditionally linked to the Athenian statesman Solon who advised relocating a hilltop settlement to the coast, the site may actually derive from the pre-Greek town of Sillu, whose king allied with Assyrian monarch Esarhaddon in 672 BC. The Roman theatre, dating to the late 2nd-early 3rd century AD, has a 52 m diameter auditorium seating approximately 3,500. Excavations since 1927 have uncovered a Hellenistic colonnaded agora with a nymphaeum, underground tombs containing gold jewellery and a golden throne, and early Christian basilicas with notable floor mosaics.