Our last day in Cyprus. It’s 8:30 am and I’m sitting in the back seat, stuffing my face with Turkish Delights as we head to one last Aphrodite site; the Palaipafos-Kouklia Archeological Site. Here we will see the remains of the Temple to Aphrodite which is most likely the first temple built to worship the goddess of beauty and love.

It’s a relatively small site, but still a Unesco World Heritage site. At 9am, we seem to be the only ones there besides the staff. We have to show our proof of vaccinations.

Along the path there is a ruin of a very small church dedicated to  St Nicolas. I small movement leads my eye to a woman kneeling, in deep prayer at one of the stones. I leave her in peace.

Also on the site is a medieval manor house where we watch a short film about the site and then walk to the House of Leda with its gorgeous mosaic of the lovely Leda with Zeus in the form of a goose. The goose seems to be biting her… Zeus must have decided to be a Canada Goose.

The mosaic is a copy but the original is in the museum which is housed in the manor house. Some of the stones from the nearby Sanctuaries to Aphrodite (oldest one from 1200 BC and a Roman one from 1-4 century AD) are on display in the museum.

The basement of the manor is a wonderful example of Gothic architecture. I love the faces built into the crossings of the ceiling braces. Graham points out how good the acoustics of the room are. They still use this hall for cultural events.

We walk through the crumbling ruins of both sanctuaries to Aphrodite. The sun is getting hot as we return to our car and head to Amathous Archeological Site (about 55km away).

On our way there, we drive through a tunnel in the mountain.

 

 

In walking through Amathous, I see a lot of broken pottery pieces. This site is also based around a sanctuary to Aphrodite. Archeologists are having a break under a shady tree.

In the distance is the Mediterranean Sea and I count six parked cruise ships.

 

We pop into the car for a 23km drive to Choirokoitia Archeological Site. This site is a change of pace, it is a Neolithic age settlement that is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It is now really hot. The first thing we see are a number of recreated stone houses from this 7000 BC village. Graham and I somehow lose John and continue on the archeological trail till we reach the excavated town of circular foundations. It is truly impressive.

Lots of bearded dragon (but much smaller) type lizards scuttle around the rocks in the noontime sun.

 

We’re now on our way to the city of Larnaka. We pass a gorgeous aqueduct on the edge of the city. I continue to munch on more Turkish Delights.

In no time we travel from Neolithic Village to the city of Larnaka. The GPS keeps trying to send us down the wrong way on one way streets. We park the car and head towards the Church of Saint Lazarus. Lazarus is the fellow who Jesus raised from the dead. After his revival Lazarus moved to Cyprus where he lived for another 30 years before his 2nd death.

A tomb saying “Lazarus, 4 days dead, friend of Christ” was found here in 890AD. The remains in the tomb were taken to Constantinople by Emperor Leo VI of Byzantium in 898AD as holy relics. They were looted during the 4th Crusade and taken to Marseille where the relics were lost. In the late 9th century the present day church was erected over where the tomb was located.

The church is closed until 2:30pm so we go for lunch. We find a restaurant that serves Cypriot food. Despite feeling a tad queasy from all the Turkish Delights I order a fish soup. I am not sure about it when it arrives because of the chunks of fish with fins and skin attached. Once I debone the fish, the soup is delicious. Graham and John have gyros.

The harbour is a short jaunt away. The waterfront is the prettiest one that we have seen in Cyprus; sandy beach on one side and shops and restaurants on the other.

The church is open when we return. Graham and John go in. As I start to enter, John reminds me that I  must cover my shoulders and knees. Fortunately they have wraps by the door.

The inside is very ornate with lots of shiny gold frames, candlesticks etc. There are lots of pictures of somber saints and huge chandeliers inside the stone walls.

Once again it is hard to get out of the city due to all the one way streets. After turning around a few times, we are on our way back to home base. We pass a salt lake that is supposed to host a large number of flamingos in the winter but there is not a pink feathered bird to be seen.

 

After loading up with gas we are now at home base and packing for our flights early tomorrow morning. I am sad that we have to say goodbye to Graham in the morning. He goes back to Norway and we go on to Jordan.

Packing is not going well. We had to get rid of one of our bottles of wine due to weight restrictions. John accidently opened my favourite bottle of white ever instead of the red and we drank it. I hope some day to see in our LCBO.