Things to do in Paphos and airport car hire

Most travellers to Cyprus today land at Paphos or Larnaca Airport, and the best way to get around Paphos or other parts of Cyprus is to hire a car from the airport.

Away from the resort cafes and hotels on a beautiful hill¬top site 42 m (140 £1) above the sea, Ktima is a bright, modern area distinguished by Neoclassical school and bank buildings, green open spaces and a large market. On the road to Limassol (Dighenis Avenue) is the small Paphos District Muse¬um.

It houses some remark¬able sculptures found in the Roman 'Villa of Theseus'. Carved in white marble im¬ported from the Aegean, they include fine statues of Aphro¬dite, Dionysos, the divine huntress Artemis (also known as Diana) and Asclepios, Greek master of medicine, feeding an egg to the snake coiled around his staff. Notice, too, the Egyptian goddess, Isis, an exquisite head with heavy-lidded eyes.

There are also fine collections of jew¬ellery, coins, ceramics and ancient glassware. A more modest museum, but also worth a visit, is housed in a charming 19th century house, the Eliades Collection, Exo Vrysis Street near the Bishop's Palace. It combines prehistoric fossils, classical antiquities and Cypri¬ot folklore of the 18th and 19th centuries. In the garden, Professor George Eliades has uncovered, carved in the bed¬rock, burial chambers from the 3rd century BC.

East of Paphos Cyprus

Just east of town on the road to Paphos Airport is the village of Yeroskipos. Its name means 'Sacred Garden'. Dedi¬cated to Aphrodite, pilgrims from Nea Paphos stopped off on their way to the goddess's temple at Palea Paphos; today, Turkish delight is manufac¬tured here.The 11 th century church of Ayia Paraskevi is, for Cyprus, a rare example of a five-domed basilica. Inside are some 15thcentury murals and a much revered icon, also 15th century, with a Virgin and Child on one side and Cruci¬fixion on the reverse. In a restored house nearby is the Museum of Folk Art. Typical of an 18thcentury rich Cypriot's villa, it has an upper storey surrounded with handsome wooden balconies.

The house once belonged to Andreas Zimboulakis, British consular agent for Paphos a post Andreas and then his son held from 1799 to 1865. Mu¬seum displays include gourds that kept children afloat while they learned to swim, even jars of carob honey, from which you can take a taste. You will also see agricultural tools, elaborately carved furniture, a lovely 18thcentury painted grandfather clock, and other items. From Yeroskipos, continue east about 12 km (8 miles) and turn off at Kouklia, once Palea Paphos, where the cult of Aphrodite took place.

The sanctuary of Aphrodite Cyprus

The love-goddess rites flourished at the Sanctuary of Aphro¬dite from very early times. Homer described the yearly spring festival the Mysteries which contributed much to the fame and coffers of Cyprus, as pilgrims came from all over the ancient world. Now in the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia, a conical stone symbolizing the goddess (her beauty was too great to rep-resent literally) was the sym¬bolic centre of Aphrodite worship. Alas, little remains of ro¬mance in the ruins on view in Kouklia, a small farming com¬munity. Aphrodite seems to have wafted away on a zephyr, the way she came.

Archaeolo¬gists have been at work here since the late 19th century, uncovering the sanctuary be¬lieved to lie largely under some surrounding farm dwell¬ings. You can distinguish north and south stoas or halls, and some cyclopean blocks of a Bronze Age wall. The Chateau de Covocle nearby originally a Lusignan fort, and then a Turkish manor house and farm contains the collection of the Palea Paphos Museum. Although many of the valuable finds from the sanctuary have been taken to Nicosia (such as a mosaic of Leda and the Swan, once stolen from here and later recovered), there are still some ceramics and other objects of minor interest.

Places to visit and car hire north of Paphos

Leaving the coast road to the resort hotels on your left, take the other northbound high way (signposted Polis) inland. Just 10 km (6 miles) north of Paphos the Monastery of Ayios Neophytos dominates a peaceful, wooded slope. Its church has some good 15th and 16th century frescoes and icons, but the main focus, set in the hillside opposite the church, is the 12th century English (Hermitage), around which the monastery grew up. The saintly historian and theologian Neophytos (1134¬-1214) hacked this cave-¬dwelling out of the rock with his own hands. He supervised the wonderful frescoes which decorate the chapel, sanctuary and cell.

One scene shows Neophytos himself, flanked by the archangels Michael and Gabriel.On the north coast, the town of Polis stands where the ancient city kingdom of Mari¬on boasted rich gold and cop¬per mines. The modern town is a gateway to the pleasant sponge fishing port and beach resort of Latchi with good fa¬cilities for water sports.

Romantics should head a little way down the road to the Baths of Aphrodite (Loutra tis Aphroditis), a natural pool and springs set in a cool green glade where our local heroine bathed to rejuvenate herself. The Akamas Peninsula is a superb nature reserve, one of the few unspoiled wilder¬nesses left on the island.

Nature trails are marked out along the craggy north shore. One of them leads ostensibly to Fontana Amorosa, in fact just a muddy well, but the ramble itself is worthwhile. Make your way among scrub forest of pine and juniper and stunted olive and carob trees leading over to dramatic cliffs of dark volcanic rock. A peculiarity of the penin¬sula is the Arbutus (strawberry tree), with bright green foliage and fruit that look like (but taste nothing like) strawber¬ries.

Flora fauna and wildlife near Paphos Cyprus

Wild flowers include the bright red Cyprus tulip, pink or yellow anemone and many varieties of orchid. Birdwatch¬ers can spot the black francol¬in, bright blue roller and the migrant bee eater or crested hoopoe, while butterfly buffs may see the rare two-tailed pasha or the commoner orange and yellow cleopatra.

While the monastery of Panayia Chrysorroyiatissa may be reached via some rather perilous mountain roads from Troodos, it is much easier to make the excursion from Pa¬phos. Again take the road north to Polis, turning to Pole¬mi and continuing on through Pano Panayia, the birthplace in 1913 of Mihail Mouskos, who became the archbishop and later president, Makarios III. Panayia Chrysorroyiatis¬sa ('Our Lady of the Golden Pomegranate') perches on a hilly site with orchards and vineyards around it.

Vines have been there since the 12th century, but only recently the monastery has started produc¬ing wines again, one of them a prizewinning white. The monk Ignatios founded the monastery in 1152; the present complex dates from the late 18th century, and was restored in 1955. The cloister is built on an unusual triangular plan.

Within the enclosure stands the church, noted for its elabo¬rately carved iconostasis. A heavy silvergilt case encloses the chief icon of the Virgin, framed in silver, a favourite of criminals and outlaws seeking divine help.

The frustration for Greek Cypriots is not just that the Turkish-occupied north (37 % of the island) is forbidden territory, but that it is a most beautiful region. The Kyrenia Mountains have a gaunt un¬spoiled splendour, the ports of Famagusta and Kyrenia have not lost the romance of their past, nor have ancient Salamis or the Gothic crusader castles and Bellapais abbey. In two day trips you can see all the sights comfortably, including northern Nicosia.