Ancient Elis, the largest city and capital of the homonymous city-state, was built on the north banks of the Peneus River, between the mountainous part of Elis (Akroreia) and its coastal lowlands (Elis Koile). The site was inhabited almost continuously from the beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic (130/120,000) until the end of the Early Byzantine period (seventh century AD), when the city was abandoned. Aetolos Oxylos is considered the city's mythical founder (twelfth-eleventh centuries BC). He allegedly took advantage of the Dorian invasion in order to subordinate the area's early inhabitants and founded the first settlement. The city thrived in the early historical period (eleventh-tenth centuries BC), during the late Archaic and early Classical periods (sixth-fifth centuries BC), and in the Early Roman period (second century BC - early third century AD).