Butrint - Health Resort and Festival Venue of the Ancient World, Albania (275/418)

Butrint - Health Resort and Festival Venue of the Ancient World, Albania (275/418)

Butrint occupies a small peninsula between the Straits of Corfu and Lake Butrint. Inhabited since prehistoric times, Butrint has been the site of a Greek colony, a Roman city, and a bishopric. Following a period of prosperity under Byzantine administration, then a brief occupation by the Venetians, the city was abandoned in the late Middle Ages after marshes formed in the area. The present archaeological site is a repository of the ruins representing each period in the city's development. The limits of the World Heritage site were expanded in 1999 to include not only the walled city from the Greek and Roman period (approximately 16 ha), but an additional 184 ha to better protect the site.