Landscape and monuments around Butrint

Within the Butrint National Park the wide variety of habitats – coastal wetlands, saltwater lagoons, rivers and open grazing land – is the riches site for biodiversity in all of Albania and the park shelters 26 species of global conservation concern, such as the marginated tortoise, the wolf and the white tailed eagle.

This magnificent landscape and rich natural environment extends beyond Butrint. As a UNESCO World Heritage site, Butrint is the most celebrated archaeological in southern Albania. Apart from sites within the Butrint National Park, the Pavllas Valley to the south contains many others, less well known. These offer a span of cultural remains from the upper Palaeolithic, to the Hellenistic period, on to the 13th century and later in a vivid illustration of the continuity of settlement in this rich and fertile area.

Beyond the Butrint National Park boundaries, the valley is framed at either end by two communities of differing sizes and fortunes: Xarra and Konispoli. Xarra, despite its present run-down appearance, was the closest Ottoman town to the Venetian enclave around Butrint. The hill on which the village sits is also important as a relic of the islands within deep stretch of the prehistoric lagoon filling the present valley, and on the slopes material datable to the Upper and Middle Palaeolithic – that is, of c. 40,000 BC – have been found.

Konispoli at the head of the valley by the border passes to Greece, is a town many of pleasant, traditional Epirote-style houses. From here are breath-taking views back across the valley toward Butrint. In the hills above, a cave used seasonally between the Upper Palaeolithic and Neolithic periods was excavated in the 1990s.