Cyprus - My 7 day circuit across the country - Day 5 afternoon - West Cyprus - Petra tou Romiou - the rock of Aphrodite - Pafos - The tombs of the Kings - The 9th of November 2016

As we were driving towards Pafos I couldn't help looking at the mountainous landscape, which seemed entirely different from anything we had come across so far, but that was until we reached the Southern part  (where we stopped) overlooking a group of limestone rocks jutting out of the sea in the Petra tou Romiou area, the land where Aphrodite is said to have emerged from the sea foam.

Infertile women or those who are lonely and unlucky in love tie handkerchiefs or scraps of fabric on nearby trees so as to beseech the Godess of love to help them.  A local legend says that swimming around the jutting rock in full moon makes one a year younger  with each lap, whilst another legend states that after a night spent in the arms of her lover Aphrodite returned to this same spot to regain her virginity by bathing in the sea.

We soon found our way onto an archaeological site used during the Hellenistic and Ptolemaic periods, as a resting place for Kings, rich citizens and high officials of the Ptolemaic state.

We visited a few underground funerary monuments (tombs 3, 4 , 8 and 11) which according to the type of architecture seem to have followed the Alexandria construction practice type, consisting of a stepped  dromos, a central atrium and burial chambers provided with many loculi for single burials, with some having cist graves underground and other pit graves as well. Tomb 4 was quite impressive with its Doric columns and even the simple fact that there existed a water-well in its southern portico, with tomb 8 being even more impressive with an arched entrance and a limestone block enclosed by a rectangular corridor where the central atrium should have been.

Since my daughter passed away I have developed a sense of peacefulness and self reflection in regards to life achievement whenever I visit burial grounds and it didn't feel much different this time. 

(To be continued)

Cyprus - My 7 day circuit across the country - Day 5 late morning - Southern Cyprus - Kourion - the House of Eustolios and the Roman Theatre - The 9th of November 2016

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We then headed towards the once large Centre of cultural, political and religious activities in the days of the Ptolomies and the Romans - Kourion. Founded in the 12th century B.C. by Mycenaean Greeks, it was home to the Sanctuary of Apollo and later the seat of a Christian Bishop.

We walked around the site and more specifically the probable private-elite House of Eustolios, originally thought to be a palace with its 30 rooms arranged around a colonnaded courtyard with mosaic floors, amongst which the one depicting Ktissis, a woman holding an architect's ruler, which was the one that most caught our attention for obvious reasons of meticulous artistry, though the ones around the peristyle courtyard and reception areas had a similar impact and looked equally astounding.

Before leaving  the site we visited the Roman Theatre, said to have been buil in the 2nd century B.C. enjoying a magnificent location overlooking the sea.

We didn't further stroll around the site because we were slightly delayed in terms of the programmed schedule and we would still have to make it to Pafos early enough, so as to be able to  especially admire the mosaics of Kato Pafos' four villas before the sun went down.