The city: Amvrakia was founded as a colony of the Corinthians in 625 BC. in the fertile plain defined by the northern slopes of the Peranthi hill and the navigable river Arachthos that surrounds it for the most part. The natural fortification was strengthened by its walls, which are estimated to be 4.5 km long. Apart from the land’s abundance, the city held a privileged geographical position, located near the sea of the Amvrakikos and on the only exit of Epirus to the South. Inside the walls, the geometric urban design formed large residential areas, measuring 150×30 meters, separated by wide roads up to 5 meters wide. The public spaces with the market and the temples were developed to the northwest. The ancient city is located beneath the present city of Arta and occupies half of its area.
The western necropolis and the sacred road: The two necropoleis, which were in constant use from the city’s foundation until its decline, stretched outside the Amvrakia walls, on the eastern and western slopes of Peranthi hill. The cemetery to the west that was organized along the sacred streets was larger and more impressive. 12m wide, the burial road was paved or concrete and led from the South Gate to the city’s port in the Amvrakikos Gulf. To date, a part of it, 300m long, has been revealed near the National Stadium.
The sacred street was surrounded by monumental burial enclosures and burials on various levels. The most common burial method was burial in a simple pit or a cist grave made of limestone slabs. Cist graves were often used as family graves, while cremation was common. The urns, where the remains of the cremations ended up, were placed in square burial cases or pits or cist graves. Grave goods accompanied the dead, and the graves were marked with tombstones bearing their names. These inscribed burial columns from domestic limestone are a unique assemblage as Epirus is concerned. Their special feature is the simple decoration, which is limited to branches of ivy, olive, or oak, and the frequent inscription of the patronymic next to the deceased’s name. The nationality, the profession, or the invocation “”ΧΑΙΡΕ”” (be happy in Greek) is rarely mentioned. The tombstones of Amvrakia were made between 500 and 200 BC by local craftsmen.
Polyandrio (today on Kommenou Street): Polyandrio, a cenotaph founded by the city around 600 BC to honor the dead people of Amvrakia and Corinth, who were killed in a battle, is one of the burial monuments. The monumental construction has a length of 12.40m, a width of 8m., and a height greater than 2.40 m. But what makes it unique is the word “”Anprakia”” written on its facade, which is the oldest reference to the city’s name. The inscription is written boustrophedon (a style of writing in which alternate lines of script are reversed) and stoichedon (the letters were aligned vertically and horizontally). The monument’s sanctity remained over the centuries, as it operated as a cemetery with a three-aisled nave during the Byzantine era.