Pafos - Land of Love

Seduced by the town's glorious ancient cult history of godly love we flew to Lanarka airport. From there, we taxied to Pissouri about an hour away - a peaceful but burgeoning hill top village perched half way between Limasol (Lemesos) and Paphos.

The coastal road to our accommodation, Columbia Beach Resort, a 5 star resort overlooking the Mediterranean, took us through rocky, hilly landscapes dotted with low white limestone houses topped with pretty red roofs. This was our introduction to a ruggedly handsome country and birthplace of love.

The next day we hired a 4x4 - quite simply the only way to traverse the undulating landscape of Paphos, taking the coastal road in preference to the newly built motorway. A simple ten minute journey took us to our first stop the famous Petra tou Romiou - Rock of Romios - located on a stretch of ruggedly beautiful coastline. Geologically, the Rock is suprisingly unrelated to the adjacent rock formations but what makes it really special is that this is the actual site where Aphrodite, Goddess of Love and Beauty, was believed in mythology, to have been born.

According to the poet Hesiod in his 4th century BC poem 'Theogony' this was no easy birth. Hesiod describes how Uranos, God of the Planets, would confine his children to the Infernal Regions of the earth for fear they would usurp his position as "Ruler of the Skies". His wife Gaia managed to save one son, Cronos, from this fate. In adulthood Cronos saw his parents making love among the planets and seizing an opportunity to satisfy his vengeance for his fathers cruelty, castrated him. The severed member fell to earth floating for a while in the ocean. Eventually a white foam gathered and fertilised the sperm producing the beautiful goddess named Aphrodite (which means 'born of sea form). She finally emerged at the site of Paphos on this very rock and was welcomed by Eros, who later became her constant companion and one of her many lovers.
We made our way down from the roadside to the Rock of Romios on foot, dipped our toes a little in the deep surrounding water and enjoyed romantic moment under the warming sun rays, imagining that they were in some way potent.

Soon after her emergence from the sea, Aphrodite made her way to Kouklia (Palaepafos) and so did we. This entire Kouklia settlement stands on the ruins of Old Pafos - Palaepafos - and includes the Grand temple or Sanctuary of Aphrodite, which served the indigenous people for four hundred years up to the time Christianity took hold. Inside the sanctuary is a black conical stone - the symbolic cult idol. Back then (some ten centuries ago) it was always kept veiled and believed to have miraculous powers.
Though there are other monuments on the site such as the Frankish manor house - chateau of Covocle - where a museum displays samples of ceramic, swords, statuettes, clay lamps and Mycenean stone instruments, it is the dynasty of Kinyrades and the "Afrodiasia" ceremonies that really holds appeal for visitors.
Part of the cult of Aphrodite included sacred prostitution and this made the temple at Paphos famous for the sheer numbers of beautiful, willing, priestesses. It became the custom for women to offer themselves to strangers before their marriage for which they were paid in silver. After marriage they served the goddess as sacred prostitutes for one day a year and the revenue was used for the maintenance of the temple.

An hours' drive later we arrived at the Bath of Aphrodite, located at the end of the road to the village of Polis, itself located to the left of the beautifully forested Akamas peninsula. A narrow path leads to the naturally formed "bath" elegantly beautified by the surrounding dense vegetation and fig trees whose broad leaves create an intimate shadowy environment. Water falls "from a thousand silver threads to the pool below", creating a rather magical effect. The semi-circular pool is only 5 metres long and only half a metre deep, but according to mythology, bathers were rewarded with eternal youth. These days though, bathers will be given a sharp reprimand.
From here an 8km trail into the Akamas Peninsula leads to the Fountain of Love or Fontana Amorosa and a walk along this trail is rewarded with spectacular views of unspoilt nature. We continued our journey onto the twisty route of the B7 hopefully heading towards Lara.

Driving along this route winding through stretches of mountainous, hilly terrain while listening to Cypriot love songs on LovePik FM had a wonderfully enchanting effect.

The surrounding area had a lived-in look, not untidy really, more disheveled like a pretty young girl with unkempt hair. Young vineyards were planted on every slope while property developers were building on every bend. Soon we were driving along narrow mountain roads, sometimes through valleys and forests and from time to time stumbling upon a remote tiny village, herds of goats crossing the road to rise higher into the mountains, orange and lemon orchards and even banana plantations.

Eventually we found a sign pointing to the Avakas Gorge. This spectacular gorge, rich in fauna and flora and just 2 kilometres in length, simply must be seen to be believed. It is a natural creation of the combined deepening of the valley through running water on the limestone rocks and the rising of land above sea level. During our trek into the gorge we happened upon a gang of Britons bubbling with enthusiasm about their 'gorgeous' trek. Behind us were a couple of Germans, who not only did not get there first, they actually gave up and never got there at all!

Climbing back into the car, quite exhausted from negotiating the vagrancies of the gorge, and quite wet due to failed negotiations, we continued our drive to the coastal town of Lara, hoping to find a more hospitable road to take us back to Pissouri. Thankfully the road relented and eventually we found ourselves heading for home for rest and refreshment.

But the way home was steeped with temptations. We succumbed to just three. Firstly, we took a detour to Coral Bay, a horseshoe shaped cliff-edged beach with fine grainy sand and bordered by coral limestone. An ancient settlement of Maa-Palaiokastro dating back to the 13th century BC has been unearthed at Coral Bay and there is a Museum of Mycenean Settlement where you can learn a lot more about life at that time. The area of Coral Bay is rather developed now, with flashing lights, vibrant night life, restaurants galore and some pretty views.

Nearby is the Spring of Pegeia and Pegeia's juniper and pine tree-covered forest and on the road to Agios Georgios isle are the spectacular Pegeia Sea Caves. Further along we visited Lempa Village where excavations unveiled an important settlement of the Chalcolithic period. Nearby replica dwellings have been recreated for posterity.

Later we stopped off at the erroneously named Tombs of the Kings at Kato Pafos. The tombs, some decorated with Doric pillars, were actually used for high ranking officials but they say the construction was considered so magnificent it seemed an appropriate name for the tomb and also the area.

We slept well that night waking early the next day, relaxed in the town of Paphos, enjoyed the picturesque harbour from a nearby taverna while drinking some sweet Cyrpiot wine to wash down a Meza (a variety of meat or fish dishes) followed by strong, black Cypriot coffee.

Later we visited the Turkish fort located in the harbour, the Pafos Odeon, a small 2nd century theatre still used to stage plays and then the famous House of Aion where Roman mosaics relay the compelling stories of love antics of the various Greek gods.
Sadly, a lack of time meant we had to forgo the Byzantine museums, the Basilicas, the churches, art museums, cat sanctuary and of course the rest of Pafos, let alone the rest of Cyprus. But did we renew our passions? Was Aphrodite was born here?

13 September 2005