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HEKATOMPEDON (Lekel) S Albania.

Mentioned by Ptolemy (3.14) as an inland city of Chaonia. The site is defended by cliffs on two long sides and by strong walls of ashlar masonry, strengthened with towers, on two short sides; the circumference of the defensible area was some 1700 m. The masonry and the use of bonding cross-walls within the circuit wall date the site to ca. 295-290 B.C., and it is likely that Pyrrhos founded it and Antigonea at the same time. The site has great strategic importance: it commanded the entry from the N into the Drin valley and lay close to the mouth of the Aous pass (Aoi Stena), leading towards Macedonia. The two rivers join just N of Lekel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

N.G.L. Hammond in JRS 56 (1966) 47ff, and 61 (1971) 114; id., Epirus (1967) 212f, 699.

N.G.L. HAMMOND

The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites. Stillwell, Richard. MacDonald, William L. McAlister, Marian Holland. Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press. 1976.

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