Description : Athienou (Greek: Αθηένου or Αθηαίνου ]) is a village in Larnaca District, Cyprus. It is one of only four villages located within the United Nations Buffer Zone, the other three being Pyla, Troulloi and Deneia. Today, Athienou has a population of around 5,000 people. Since 1990, it has been home to Davidson College's Athienou Archaeological Project. The town's city hall includes a museum of local history and culture that was established in 2008. According to archeological excavations, the area of Athienos was inhabited at least from the 14th century BC. In the 12th century BC. Achaeans from the city of Sikyona ( Peloponnese ) established a colony in the area. The colony was named Golgoi either by the name of Golgo, leader of the Achaeans, or by the surname of Golgotha Aphrodite , for which there was a sanctuary in the area. Although the Golgotha declined in the following centuries, the settlement was preserved under an unknown name until the Byzantine years . The name Athene appears for the first time in the Chronicle of Leontios Macheiras , a Cypriot chronographer who lived during the Frankish period (1192-1489).
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