Located in the Maroni valley, about 6 km from the Southern coast of the island, the Choirokoitia site is located in a hilly landscape at the foot of the Troodos massif. It is the most impressive example of the initial settlement of sedentary communities on the island and the development of an original civilization: the Cypriot Neolithic Aceramic. These communities came from the nearby mainland and settled in Cyprus at the end of the 7th millennium BC. bringing with them plants and animals until then unknown to Cyprus.
The Choirokoitia site, which was founded and inhabited during the 5th millennium BC, was discovered in 1934. In 1976 the exploration was taken over by the Franch CNRS (Center National de Recherche Scientifique).
The site has a complex architectural system, unique in Cyprus and the Near East, which provided control over access to the village. The houses were protected within the walls. Each house consisted of a complex of several buildings with a circular ground floor around an uncovered space, a sort of small internal "courtyard" where the grinding took place. These structures were built of stone bricks and sun dried mud. The roof was flat and consisted of a wooden frame made of branches, reeds and earth. The excavation revealed that the dead were buried in the pits inside the housing units.
The inhabitants of Choirokoitia used the diabase, a hard stone, for the production of stone vases, which are a particular feature of the Cypriot Aceramic Neolithic. Picrolite, a smooth green stone that can be found in abundance in the Kouris river bed West of Lemesos, was used to make jewellery.
The brilliant civilization suddenly vanished, and no explanation has been given for its disappearance. Choirokoitia, like other aceramic sites on the island, has been abandoned and the island seems to have remained free from human presence for a long time, until the emergence of a new civilization: the ceramic Neolithic. The site has been included in the UNESCO world cultural heritage list.