Best ancient sites in Albania

Albania’s ancient sites belong to the Greek and Illyrian world of Epirus and the Adriatic coast, with Rome on top: Hellenistic hill cities of the Chaonians and Bylliones, and a Roman port at Durres. Four of the catalogue’s five lie in the south. Butrint, on a wooded peninsula near Saranda, layers a Greek theatre, Roman baths, an early Christian baptistery and a Venetian castle in one UNESCO site. Phoenice rises above Finiq, 20 minutes from Saranda, Antigonea faces Gjirokaster across the Drino valley, and Byllis overlooks the Vjosa. On the coast, the amphitheatre of Durres, begun under Trajan, is the largest built in the Balkans.