Wednesday, May 20, 2020

Limassol to Paphos: Trip to Cyprus, part 3


I have an urge to go someplace.  But thanks to the coronavirus Covid-19 epidemic, I can’t go far.  My travelling is in fact restricted to my university campus; on nationally mandated lockdown weekends, such as these past few days (15-19 May), I can’t even leave my own apartment.  It’s a good opportunity to revisit past trips.  Let me start with the third and final part of a trip to Cyprus four years ago in late May, 2016 (for parts 1 and 2, see posts on this Blog, July 8 and August 9, 2016).

Limassol.  We got up early in order to meet archaeologist Alison South, who had kindly agreed to show us the Late Bronze Age site of Kalavasos-Agios Dhimitrios, located east of Limassol, where she had directed excavations.  Like all the Cypriot sites we visited, the  remains of this large mansion lay just below the surface.  After a detailed tour, much appreciated, and a coffee together with Ian Todd, her archaeologist husband, Alison took us to see Maroni, another Late Bronze Age site, not far off but closer to the seashore.  The key to the gate didn’t work so we peered in through the fencing.  We had lunch in Zygi, at a fish restaurant run by a man who had been a refugee in 1974 from Lapithos, a town on the island’s north coast (recalled on the placemats).  It was clearly a day for archaeologists: we were joined at lunch by Kevin and Sheri Fisher from Vancouver, also specialists in the prehistory of this region.  After lunch, we visited Kalavasos-Tenta, a Neolithic site that Ian had excavated in the 1970s-80s.


Kalavasos-Tenta (photo: Elizabeth Lehman)

     This hilltop site is now sheltered under a large modern wigwam-shaped roofing, which makes a striking impression as one drives along the main east-west highway just below it.  Houses are round, as at Khirokitia (visited the day before).


Kalavasos-Tenta (photo: www.kiprinform.com)

Tenta is a smaller site than Khirokitia, but the signage was clearer and more informative.  We finished the day with a drive up into the hills, to see Alassa, another Late Bronze Age site with a large building in which nicely cut ashlar blocks were used.  This settlement seems very remote, but may well have had something to do with copper mining activities in the region.
        Back to Limassol for a second night, and another dinner at the local taverna.  This evening, Saturday, the taverna was patronized by young men (in their late 20s or 30s) with well-dressed women. The evening before, families predominated.  For the dinner, we insisted on a less copious meal, having learned our lesson about the giant portions typically served.
The next day we headed west.  First we drove through downtown Limassol, very quiet that Sunday morning.  The regional museum, our first destination, was closed on Saturday and Sunday – odd, we thought: when are locals able to visit it?  We drove through the city to the seashore, where an attractive promenade had recently been installed.  There is a medieval castle somewhere by the shore, or a part of one, but we missed it. 
        We continued on to Kourion, for our major Hellenistic-Roman ruins of this trip.  The museum, in the nearby town of Episkopi, in a house that belonged to or had been rented by George McFadden, an American archaeologists active in the 1930s and 1940s, was also closed on Saturdays and Sundays – another museum that had to be skipped. 
        Kourion and part of Episkopi lie on British territory: on the Sovereign Base Area of Akrotiri, one of two military bases kept by Britain, the colonial occupier, after the independence of Cyprus in 1960.  For the casual tourist like us, this relic of British imperialism had no effect.


Kourion: an Early Christian basilica (5th c.)

Kourion is well organized for visitors, with excellent signage throughout; big, solid roofs over certain buildings; and shaded shelters and view points (Kourion is located on a bluff with great sea views).


View of the seacoast, from Kourion

     Kourion has two other sectors to the west, with separate access: a stadium and the sanctuary of Apollo Hylattes.  We stopped at both.  Few visitors here, even though the Temple of Apollo, in particular, is very striking.


Temple of Apollo Hylattes, Kourion

        Late lunch just off the main highway leading westward toward Paphos.  I had an excellent tuna salad.  When people ask, as did the proprietor of this restaurant, I say I’m American and that I live in Turkey. This last fact has not caused any reaction, either positive or negative.
        Not far beyond, we left the highway again for Petra tou Romaiou, striking rock formations by the seashore associated with the birth of Aphrodite.  This spot, with a small pebbled beach, was crammed with tourists.  Water was expensive in the market/store, but the WC was clean (as they have been everywhere).


Petra tou Romaiou

     Clearly, a stop on day excursions – for Russians from Limassol?  On the sign in the window of one bus, the tour program also listed Kykkos, a famous monastery high in the Troodos Mountains.  Archbishop Makarios III, the first president of Cyprus, began his religious training there.  This comprehensive combination of beach/Aphrodite and mountains/Orthodox monastery/Virgin Mary sounded distinctly appealing.          
On to Kouklia/Palaiopaphos, in the modern, upscale town of Kouklia.  A major sanctuary of Aphrodite is here, but visible in ground plan only, typical for Cyprus – although there are some massive stone blocks/orthostats/ashlars from Late Bronze Age construction.


Kouklia/Palaeopaphos: Late Bronze Age construction

     Also here is a medieval “manor house”, originally from the Lusignan period, with later Ottoman refurbishing.  In the later Middle Ages, Kouklia was active in the lucrative cane sugar industry.  One hall has beautiful Gothic rib vaults. A chamber music concert was to take place there that evening.


Gothic hall: Lusignan period

Other rooms contained a collection of antiquities, including a surprising painted stone (or terracotta?) sarcophagus of Persian-period date.


At the end of the afternoon we drove on to Paphos – to upper Paphos, the town proper. Kato Paphos, the lower town on the seacoast, has been developed for mass tourism and is wall-to-wall bars and restaurants designed to appeal in particular to British tourists.
        Our hotel, the Axiothea, was beautifully sited on a bluff. Our room had a panoramic view of the seacoast, almost 180°.
The next morning we drove down to Kato Paphos to visit the extensive archaeological area. The main attraction: Roman houses with mosaic floors.


Two are preserved under permanent shelters, the House of Aion and the very large House of Dionysos.  A Polish team from Warsaw began excavating here in 1965.  A few days earlier we had seen a fine exhibit on their results in the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia.
        The site is enormous.  Because we had much more on our day’s program, we skipped the other sectors, such as the odeion and the agora.
        Back to the car (our rental Toyota, with right hand drive), for a short drive to the “Tombs of the Kings,” a necropolis featuring rock-cut tombs, especially multiple groups in the style of Alexandrian hypogea.


One of the underground “Tombs of the Kings” – Paphos

Next stop: Lemba, a Chalcolithic settlement with round houses of various sizes, with some reconstructions.  The biggest one had red painted decoration on the outside and inside, now faded since the initial reconstruction.  We were the only visitors here.


Lemba: a reconstructed house

After this, we headed northwest to see Maa-Palaikastro, a short-lived 12th c. BC settlement of Mycenaean refugees.  This site occupies a peninsula flanked by beaches with attractive hotels and houses.


The fortification wall is built of large blocks. The houses are preserved only in ground plan, but the area is littered with  potsherds.


Maa – Palaikastro

At the far end is the small Museum of Mycenaean Colonization of Cyprus, a round building that looks like a space ship sunken in the ground.


The exhibit, about the 13th-12th c. BC, was quite general, and unfortunately had little about the site itself.
        After this, we drove back to Nicosia without a stop.  It took only two hours. Thanks to precise directions received a few days before from a helpful man at the Larnaca Tourism Information Office, we found our parking lot by the Venetian walls without any difficulty.
        The next day we returned our rental car in the outlying district of Strovolos, paying a whopping penalty for a tiny nick in the paint; took a taxi back to the city center; toured Nicosia in the later morning; then, after lunch, took our bags and walked up Ledra Street to the crossing point into the northern sector. After a visit to the Selimiye Mosque, originally built in the 13th century as the St. Sophia church, a large, majestic Catholic church in the Gothic style, and an admiring look at the Gothic façade of the adjacent Bedesten, we took a taxi to the Ercan airport and a flight (Pegasus airlines) back to Ankara. 
     Looking forward to a return!

Bedesten (adjacent to the Selimiye Mosque), Nicosia 

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