During the archaeological season of 2007, several new sondages were opened in the large Hellenistic portico of the ancient city of Apollonia. Sondage 5c, initially opened during the field season of 2006, was extended toward the east of the portico. The excavation exposed foundation levels of a monument built with regular limestone blocks of quadratic shape. Seven sondages were excavated to the west of the sector aiming to locate the western limits of the portico, and also understand its plan. Other structures identified during this season were: the rear wall of the portico, which was 128 m long, and run in the west-east direction (sondages 5c, 8c-f, 11 and 12); the elongated colonnade, consisting of 23 columns (sondage 8b-d, at the western edge and 5b to the east), to which a column was added at each corner (sondage 8a to the west and 5a to the east). Contrary to what was previously assumed, it is now certain that the two columns discovered do not form a second colonnade in the façade of the portico (sondage 3a, 8e and 10). Therefore, it seems likely that the portico was a one nave building with a colonnade, decorated with capitals of Doric and Corinthian orders in its façade. To the west (sondage 8g) as well as to the east (sondage 5), the rear wall of the monumental building formed right angles and then continued ahead. The wall was sustained by a north-south terracing structure, which was leveled during the construction of the portico, for the creation of a flat area of the monument’s façade. In almost all the opened sondages, the excavations revealed a great number of architectural fragments and brick columns bases, creating a thick debris layer, which might perhaps relate to the dismantling process.
The foundations walls of the portico were found directly above the Hellenistic layers, and this latter, right above a layer of ceramic material of the 6th – 5th Centuries BC, suggesting the construction date of the monument at the end of the Hellenistic period.