Paphos Cyprus and cheap car hire
Cheap car hire can be pre-booked and picked up easily at Paphos Airport.
Paphos has been transformed by the tourist boom that has concentrated in the southern part of the island since the 1974 partition. Resort facili¬ties have expanded at a light¬ning rate, north to the beaches of Coral Bay and south from the old harbour out along Poseidon Avenue to Moulia. But visitors who want to do more than just lie in the sun have plenty to occupy them.
Paphos is a comfortable base from which to explore the western mountain villages and monasteries and the beautiful nature trails on the Akamas peninsula, not forgetting the ancient sites of Paphos' long history back to when Aphro¬dite first made it her home. Legend tributes the founding of Palea (Old) Pa¬phos to the priest king Cinyras.
A temple was built to Aphrodite here, 16 km (10 miles) from today's Paphos, in Mycenaen times, and the city-kingdom gained renown as the centre of Aphrodite's cult. Earthquakes destroyed the temple sometime in the late 12th century BC, but it was rebuilt soon after by King Agapenor from Arcadia in the Peloponnese, who was ship¬wrecked in the area on his return from the Trojan War.
Agapenor subsequently set himself up as king of Paphos. The last king of Old Pa¬phos, Nicocles, established the new port town of Nea Paphos late in the 4th century BC, though Palea Paphos remained the centre of Aphrodite wor¬ship until the 4th century AD.
Within 100 years of its found¬ing, Nea Paphos surpassed Salamis as chief city of Cyprus and it was here that, when Cyprus came under Roman government, the Proconsul Sergius Paulus was converted to Christianity. Earthquakes in 332 and 342 and Saracen at¬tacks in the 7th century forced most of the population inland to Ktima, though Nea Paphos was not completely abandoned until 1372, following the Genoese invasion.
A small seaport for cru¬saders and others, Paphos lan¬guished as a miserable place with a poor reputation. How¬ever, the population gradually increased to over 2,000 by the late 19th century. The harbour was dredged in 1908, attract¬ing further maritime com¬merce. Paphos continued to grow and prosper, and in spite of some damage in the 1974 war, it bounced back to attract not only tourists but new Cypriot settlers also.
The history of lower Paphos
West of the seafront restaur¬ants and boutiques, the har¬bour still provides a haven for a few fishing boats and sailing vessels as it curves around a jetty to the old Fort. Like a child's buildingblocks, virtu¬ally the same masonry has over the centuries been set up, knocked down and rearranged to form a Roman fort, a feudal castle, a Turkish tower and a British warehouse for salt. From the east end of the harbour, Apostolos Pavlos Av¬enue climbs to the excavated site of an Early Christian basilica (4th century AD).
Among the ruins of the large sevenaisled church, you can make out mosaic pavements with floral and geometric pat¬terns, Corinthian capitals and columns of green and white marble imported from Greece. Arabic graffiti on some of the columns date from the in¬vasion which destroyed the basilica in AD 653. One of the columns is still described as St Paul's Pillar where the apos¬tle was imagined to have been tied and lashed 39 times for preaching the Gospel more than 300 years before the marble reached Cyprus.
Still standing intact is the 15th-century Ayia Kyriaki church at which Catholic and Anglican services are held. Nearby are the vestiges of a Gothic Franciscan church put up by the Lusignans. But note, too, just to the north of the Christian sanctuaries, a tiny twindomed secular building, like a boat from the old port of Paphos and explore the romantic coastline. the old Turkish baths, with a gnarled old tree trunk pushing up through the masonry. West of Apostolos Pavlos Avenue lies the so-called By¬zantine Castle.
Excavations have since established its true iden¬tity as a castle built by French Crusaders at the end of the 12th century and destroyed by earthquake in 1222. Its large square keep had a tower at each corner, surrounded by a dry moat and thick exterior walls with eight bastions.
On your way to the nearby Roman remains, make a short detour north to the Odeon, a reconstructed amphitheatre of the 2nd century AD. In a pic¬turesque hillside setting with a lighthouse behind it, it seats 1,250 spectators for open-air shows.
The famous Paphos Mosaics
The splendid decorative floors that have been (and are still being) uncovered in the re mains of wealthy Roman villas ofNea (New) Paphos (3rd cen¬tury AD) constitute the most important group of mosaics in Cyprus. Lovingly reconstruct¬ed from damage suffered during the landlevelling op¬erations which first revealed them in 1962 and the bom¬bardments in 1974, they are exhibited in houses named after the mosaics' most prom¬inent motif. The tesserae (mo¬saic cubes) are bright coloured local stone of natural hues, together with some orange, yellow, green and blue glass.
The House of Dionysos displays the god of wine returning from India on a chariot drawn by two panthers. This and other scenes, such as Dionysos recolllmending moderation to the nymph Akme drinking wine from a bowl, and King Icarios of Athens getting shepherds drunk with their first taste of wine, were customary decora¬tions for the dining room. But here are also romantic scenes of Pyramos and Thisbe and of Phaedra looking longingly at her stepson Hippolytos.
More dramatic are the hunting mo¬tifs of leopard, tiger and bear around the atrium. Follow the signposts to the Villa of Theseus, probably the official residence of the Pro¬consul of Nea Paphos, where the mosaic shows Ariadne watching a heroic but rather absent-minded Theseus slay the (partially defaced) Mino¬taur. The House of Aion has a spectacular five-panelled mo-saic. The large central panel depicts Aion, god of eternity, judging a beauty contest be¬tween a somewhat smug-look¬ing Queen Cassiopeia, the winner, and the unhappy, un¬questionably prettier Nereides water nymphs.
Tombs of the Kings Paphos
Northwest of what was Nea Paphos (off the road to the beach resort of Coral Bay) is the ancient community's necropolis. Its subterranean burial chambers were carved from the ruddy rock that slopes down to the sea at a time (3rd century BC to 3rd century AD) when Paphos had no kings. But many of them are imposing enough to sug¬gest that they were at least the resting place of the Ptolemy dynasty's most important local officials. This 'city of the dead', imitating in those days the city of the living, gives a rare insight into the residential architecture of Nea Paphos: spacious courtyards with peri style of Doric columns and decorative entablatures.
Paphos has been transformed by the tourist boom that has concentrated in the southern part of the island since the 1974 partition. Resort facili¬ties have expanded at a light¬ning rate, north to the beaches of Coral Bay and south from the old harbour out along Poseidon Avenue to Moulia. But visitors who want to do more than just lie in the sun have plenty to occupy them.
Paphos is a comfortable base from which to explore the western mountain villages and monasteries and the beautiful nature trails on the Akamas peninsula, not forgetting the ancient sites of Paphos' long history back to when Aphro¬dite first made it her home. Legend tributes the founding of Palea (Old) Pa¬phos to the priest king Cinyras.
A temple was built to Aphrodite here, 16 km (10 miles) from today's Paphos, in Mycenaen times, and the city-kingdom gained renown as the centre of Aphrodite's cult. Earthquakes destroyed the temple sometime in the late 12th century BC, but it was rebuilt soon after by King Agapenor from Arcadia in the Peloponnese, who was ship¬wrecked in the area on his return from the Trojan War.
Agapenor subsequently set himself up as king of Paphos. The last king of Old Pa¬phos, Nicocles, established the new port town of Nea Paphos late in the 4th century BC, though Palea Paphos remained the centre of Aphrodite wor¬ship until the 4th century AD.
Within 100 years of its found¬ing, Nea Paphos surpassed Salamis as chief city of Cyprus and it was here that, when Cyprus came under Roman government, the Proconsul Sergius Paulus was converted to Christianity. Earthquakes in 332 and 342 and Saracen at¬tacks in the 7th century forced most of the population inland to Ktima, though Nea Paphos was not completely abandoned until 1372, following the Genoese invasion.
A small seaport for cru¬saders and others, Paphos lan¬guished as a miserable place with a poor reputation. How¬ever, the population gradually increased to over 2,000 by the late 19th century. The harbour was dredged in 1908, attract¬ing further maritime com¬merce. Paphos continued to grow and prosper, and in spite of some damage in the 1974 war, it bounced back to attract not only tourists but new Cypriot settlers also.
The history of lower Paphos
West of the seafront restaur¬ants and boutiques, the har¬bour still provides a haven for a few fishing boats and sailing vessels as it curves around a jetty to the old Fort. Like a child's buildingblocks, virtu¬ally the same masonry has over the centuries been set up, knocked down and rearranged to form a Roman fort, a feudal castle, a Turkish tower and a British warehouse for salt. From the east end of the harbour, Apostolos Pavlos Av¬enue climbs to the excavated site of an Early Christian basilica (4th century AD).
Among the ruins of the large sevenaisled church, you can make out mosaic pavements with floral and geometric pat¬terns, Corinthian capitals and columns of green and white marble imported from Greece. Arabic graffiti on some of the columns date from the in¬vasion which destroyed the basilica in AD 653. One of the columns is still described as St Paul's Pillar where the apos¬tle was imagined to have been tied and lashed 39 times for preaching the Gospel more than 300 years before the marble reached Cyprus.
Still standing intact is the 15th-century Ayia Kyriaki church at which Catholic and Anglican services are held. Nearby are the vestiges of a Gothic Franciscan church put up by the Lusignans. But note, too, just to the north of the Christian sanctuaries, a tiny twindomed secular building, like a boat from the old port of Paphos and explore the romantic coastline. the old Turkish baths, with a gnarled old tree trunk pushing up through the masonry. West of Apostolos Pavlos Avenue lies the so-called By¬zantine Castle.
Excavations have since established its true iden¬tity as a castle built by French Crusaders at the end of the 12th century and destroyed by earthquake in 1222. Its large square keep had a tower at each corner, surrounded by a dry moat and thick exterior walls with eight bastions.
On your way to the nearby Roman remains, make a short detour north to the Odeon, a reconstructed amphitheatre of the 2nd century AD. In a pic¬turesque hillside setting with a lighthouse behind it, it seats 1,250 spectators for open-air shows.
The famous Paphos Mosaics
The splendid decorative floors that have been (and are still being) uncovered in the re mains of wealthy Roman villas ofNea (New) Paphos (3rd cen¬tury AD) constitute the most important group of mosaics in Cyprus. Lovingly reconstruct¬ed from damage suffered during the landlevelling op¬erations which first revealed them in 1962 and the bom¬bardments in 1974, they are exhibited in houses named after the mosaics' most prom¬inent motif. The tesserae (mo¬saic cubes) are bright coloured local stone of natural hues, together with some orange, yellow, green and blue glass.
The House of Dionysos displays the god of wine returning from India on a chariot drawn by two panthers. This and other scenes, such as Dionysos recolllmending moderation to the nymph Akme drinking wine from a bowl, and King Icarios of Athens getting shepherds drunk with their first taste of wine, were customary decora¬tions for the dining room. But here are also romantic scenes of Pyramos and Thisbe and of Phaedra looking longingly at her stepson Hippolytos.
More dramatic are the hunting mo¬tifs of leopard, tiger and bear around the atrium. Follow the signposts to the Villa of Theseus, probably the official residence of the Pro¬consul of Nea Paphos, where the mosaic shows Ariadne watching a heroic but rather absent-minded Theseus slay the (partially defaced) Mino¬taur. The House of Aion has a spectacular five-panelled mo-saic. The large central panel depicts Aion, god of eternity, judging a beauty contest be¬tween a somewhat smug-look¬ing Queen Cassiopeia, the winner, and the unhappy, un¬questionably prettier Nereides water nymphs.
Tombs of the Kings Paphos
Northwest of what was Nea Paphos (off the road to the beach resort of Coral Bay) is the ancient community's necropolis. Its subterranean burial chambers were carved from the ruddy rock that slopes down to the sea at a time (3rd century BC to 3rd century AD) when Paphos had no kings. But many of them are imposing enough to sug¬gest that they were at least the resting place of the Ptolemy dynasty's most important local officials. This 'city of the dead', imitating in those days the city of the living, gives a rare insight into the residential architecture of Nea Paphos: spacious courtyards with peri style of Doric columns and decorative entablatures.
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