The ancient city covers a big part of the peninsula, which extends between the suburb of the windmill and the suburb of Kanoni which had two harbours, the Eastern or harbour of Alkinoos that faced Epirus. The sea rose much higher than today and the western or Ellaiko port that was found in the lagoon of Chalkiopoulou, is where the airport is found today. In the right of the palace, there are ruins of the temple of Ira. The temple is dated in the end of the 7th century and it probably was the biggest in the island. Unfortunately, it has suffered big deteriorations and thus nothing has been saved from it. On the contrary, the temple of Kardaki which is a little further away is the most well extant ancient temple of Kerkyra.

It is a small Dorian temple dated from the end of the 6th century, with 11 monolithic pillars in its wide sides and 6 in its narrow sides, and was dedicated as it is said either to Neptune, or to Asklepios, or, finally, to Apollo.

The first findings were revealed during the years of English domination, when part of the Dorian temple of Kardaki collapsed because of the weather conditions. Later the excavations occurred between the years 1936 - 1955 and during this period parts of the market and the old Christian royal were revealed. From 1987 up to today the area is excavated systematically by Greek archaeologists in collaboration with the University of Louvain. The roman baths, the port docks of Alkinoos and important part of the stone tiled floor of the archaic market were revealed during this period. In 1994-1995, important restoration work was realised in the area of the roman baths.

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