Paphos, Cyprus

2nd – 8th May 2023

In a break from the normal motorhome blog, we flew to Cyprus for my daughter’s wedding. This is not meant as an account of that day, however, but being the father of the bride, I had the pleasure of escorting my daughter Rachael to the ceremony and making a speech afterwards which I fear might have been a little incoherent. Ah well.

The Paphos area of Cyprus is steeped in history, some of it contemporary with the building of the pyramids. It is, of course, a very warm country, being almost in the middle east. Fortunately we avoided the heat of the summer on this trip.

It is also very beautiful, despite being a tourism hotspot.

“Tombs of the Kings”

Although not actual kings’ tombs, the site housed many catacomb-like underground burial places which would have been the last resting places of wealthy individuals dating from around the 4th century BC. It is huge, and one of many archeological sites in Cyprus.

There were also some familiar and not-so-familiar birds in this area on the island:

Aphrodite’s Rock, or Birthplace:

Much is made of Aphrodite, with many sites around the country being linked in some way to her.

Of course, with Aphrodite being a god, she would not need the normal facilities for a safe birth. Not sure which part of the rock she actually emerged from.

The Sanctuary of Aphrodite

The sanctuary was apparently the centre for worship of Aphrodite and is a UNESCO world heritage site.

We also visited the Baths of Aphrodite, which is near the small town of Polis on the north coast of the island.

Scenery

Having hired a car, we took the opportunity to explore the island which is quite mountainous in places. Here follows a few random images:

Tropical fruits are abundant:

There were a couple of shipwrecks around the area we visited. The first was seen from our hotel balcony, the ship had clearly run aground:

And the second, further north along the coast, seemed to be becoming a tourist attraction. It is even seen and identified on Google Maps.:

On our final day of exploration, we returned to Paphos Harbour and on the way we visited some catacombs which were alongside the road.

We then visited the large UNESCO world heritage archeological area, which has a number of sites within its boundaries. Again, there were many mosaic floors on display, though many were covered up to protect them.

Afterwards, we ate in a harbour-front restaurant which was excellent. A neighbouring restaurant has a pet pelican, which seemed very interested in the contents of the seafood display cabinet.