Vigla lies on a plateau between the ancient cities of Kition (modern Larnaca) and Salamis (near modern Famagusta), near the modern village of Pyla and lying within the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area. All finds from Vigla to date have been consistent with an early Hellenistic date of occupation, with no evidence of later Roman (58 BCE – 4th c. CE) occupation and little trace of earlier Iron Age (1000-332 BCE) deposits. The material excavated at present indicates that the site was a military fortification – including bronze and iron weapons and projectiles, lead sling bullets, and evidence of small-scale weapons manufacture – dating at least to the reign of Alexander the Great (336-323 BCE), with architecture and remains consistent with a short occupation of two phases lasting at most from 350-250 BCE.
All of this makes Vigla exceedingly rare: while there are many fortified sites that have Hellenistic components, Vigla is at present the only known example of a completely Hellenistic fortification. In addition, sites in the Eastern Mediterranean with significant Hellenistic deposits are nearly always occupied well into the Roman and early Byzantine periods. The potential of Vigla’s material for contributing to our understanding the early Hellenistic period is immense.