The Tombs of the Kings at Paphos: a necropolis without kings

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the sources say

According to the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus page on the Tombs of the Kings, the tombs were built in the 3rd century BCE and were used until the beginning of the 4th century CE. The 1977 excavations uncovered eight burial complexes. Source 1.

A name, not a description

According to the same page, the name "Tombs of the Kings" is not connected with the burial of kings, since the monarchy was abolished in 312 BCE, before the tombs were built. The name is therefore a label, not a description of who was buried there. The sources used here do not say how the label arose. Source 1.

What the UNESCO page adds

The UNESCO World Heritage Centre page on Paphos places the necropolis in Kato Paphos, to the north of Nea Paphos, and gives its name in transliteration as Tafoi ton Vasileon. The page lists the "rock-hewn peristyle tombs" of Paphos among the architectural remains of exceptional historical value, and elsewhere calls the site "the rock-hewn necropolis known as the Tomb of the Kings", in the singular. Source 2.

Dating and placement

The 3rd century BCE lies wholly within the Hellenistic period of the Department of Antiquities table, 312-58 BCE, and the article is therefore placed there. The use, until the beginning of the 4th century CE, continued through the whole of the table's Roman period, 58 BCE-395 CE. The sources used here give no phases of use within that span, so the article has no dated Roman phase of its own and is not placed in the Roman period as well. Sources 3, 1.

What can and cannot be said

Eight complexes uncovered in 1977 are not necessarily the whole necropolis. The sources used here do not say how many tombs there are in all, who excavated, what was found in the tombs or who was buried in them, so this page does not describe the dead or their status. The link with Nea Paphos, to the north of which the necropolis lies, is a link of place, not evidence of who was buried there. Sources 1, 2.

Scope of reading: the UNESCO page on Paphos was read on 24 October 2026. The Department of Antiquities pages cited here could not be opened for checking on 24 October 2026; the details from them follow notes taken from those pages at an earlier stage and were not re-checked. The reports of the 1977 excavations were not read.