Khirokitia-Neolithic settlement-7000 B.C.

 To the archaeologist the comparatively small area on the foothills of Troodos, which extend into the Larnaca district, offers elements for more than a lifetime's study. The Neolithic settlement of Khirokitia was discovered in 1934 and was excavated by Dr. Porphyrios Dikaios between 1936 and 1946. The site has since been the subject of many further investigations by the Department of Antiquities as well as by some French missions. Much has been unearthed and implements and utensils from the circular dwellings of the early Cypriots are exhibited in the Cyprus Museum....

...Wandering about the circular stone-built huts of the earliest known inhabitants of the island gives one an eerie feeling. Who were these early Cypriots? Where did they come from? Why did they choose this site? Why did they have artificially-deformed heads? Why did they abandon their settlement? What happened to the pygmy hippopotamus that roamed over Cyprus then? There are not, it would seem, many positive answers to these questions as yet. What is certain is the fact that a visit to the Neolithic settlement of Khirokitia will make a subsequent visit to the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia all the more interesting.