Apolonia — the ancient Greek and Roman city of Apollonia — is one of Albania's most impressive archaeological sites, occupying a hillside about 12 kilometres west of Fier. The site includes substantial remains of the agora, a well-preserved odeum (small theatre), a stoa, and the Temple of Artemis. A 13th-century Byzantine monastery built within the ancient ruins houses a museum with sculpture and artefacts recovered from the site.
The scale of Apolonia is impressive: at its peak in the 1st century BCE it had a population of perhaps 60,000 people. Only a fraction of the site has been excavated, and walking the ruins gives you a sense of the massive city that lies mostly underground. The setting — on a rise above the Albanian lowlands with views to the Adriatic on clear days — is beautiful. Allow two to three hours including the museum.