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If you managed to catch our earlier series or if you've previously asked for fact sheets you will know that we have already been to Cyprus. On our first journey to the island we travelled from Larnaca in the west, along the coast road past Limassol, and on to Paphos. Whilst we were staying in Paphos at the Pioneer Beach Hotel, the manager a charming man called Aristos, claimed that we weren't seeing the "real" Cyprus that lives high up in the villages that cling to the slopes of the Troodos mountains. Well there's nothing we like more than a challenge so we came back and told Aristos to take us on a journey to the village where he was born. Sadly he was away on business in Amsterdam! So his assistant Lagis, who comes from the same village took us instead.
Clearly Cyprus is split. The northern tip of the island is under Turkish rule and has been a semi-independent Turkish Cypriot state since 1975. The rest of the island is under Greek rule.
The first Greek colony is believed to have been founded in 1400 BC by traders from Arcadia. After that there then follows a list of occupiers and take-overs that makes Mastermind look like an episode of Play School:-
800 BC The Phoenicians. 525 BC Assyrian, then Egyptian, then Persian. 391 BC King Evagoras united all the city states of Cyprus. 333 BC Alexander the Great. 323 BC Egyptian. 58 BC Rome. One thousand years passing from one to another! 1191 Richard the Lionheart. 1489 Venice. 1571 Turkey. 1878 Russia beat Turkey in the Russo-Turkish War. Turkey asks Britain to run the island. 1950 95% of Cypriots wanted a union with Greece under the leadership of Bishop Mouskos. 1956 Britain declared a state of emergency following a massive terrorist campaign against them. 1959 made an independent republic guaranteed by Great Britain, Turkey and Greece. 1963 Turks and Greeks fight over constitutional changes. 1975 Turks control northern section of island. Now. Still fighting!
And you thought I was joking. Anyway back to the peaceful south of the island where the only territorial issue is which sun bed you use.
The name Paphos comes from the Roman Mythology about the sculptor of Cyprus, Pygmalion, who hated women until he made a statue of a beautiful woman which he fell in love with. He asked the Goddess Venus to send him a maiden like his sculpture, she agreed and gave the statue life. They had a son who they called Paphos. Simple eh! First trip is to the village of Kouklia, or Palea Paphos, just outside Paphos on the airport road. This is the site where the remains of the Sanctuary of Aphrodite can found. First inhabited in 1500 BC it became the centre of the cult of Aphrodite. There were many strange customs carried out by the Kinyrid dynasty here. Kinyras was said to have been the first King to consort with Aphrodite - they were wedded to the Goddess through the temple prostitutes, and married their daughters if their wife dies before them.
The site has undergone many changes over the years. A wealthy Roman chose to build his private villa next to the shrine, medieval sugar milling machinery was placed on top of the foundation stones and nearby villagers treated the site as a quarry and nicked all of the stone. The fortified manor house at the entrance to the site, Le Cavocle Kouklia, is worth a look.
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