Idalium (Greek: Idalion) is an ancient city…

Idalium (Greek: Idalion) is an ancient city in Cyprus, in modern Dali, Nicosia District, founded on the copper trade in the third millennium BCE.

Its name in the eighth century BCE is "Ed-di-al" as it appears on the Prism of Essarhaddon and the Stele of Sargon.

The original inhabitants were the natives of the island, known to scholars as the "Eteocypriotes."

The original city lay on the northern side of the Yialias River in modern "Ayios Sozomenos."

The people of Ed-di-al began manufacturing operations on the south side of the river in what is now modern Dhali During the thirteenth century BCE.

From here, the city has grown to the major urban and copper-trading center found by the Assyrians at the end of the eighth century BCE.

Idalion is the first among seven city kingdoms listed on the Stele of Sargon (701 BCE) and first among the ten Cypriot kingdoms listed on the prism (many-sided tablet) of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon.