PALAIPAPHOS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

This 144-hectare site (Αρχαιολογικός Χώρος Παλαίπαφου/Archaiologikos Choros Palaipafou) houses the remains of the ancient city of Paphos (Palaipaphos), the ancient sanctuary of Aphrodite and a medieval mansion in which a museum is housed. It is listed as a Unesco World Heritage Site along with two archaeological sites in present-day Paphos, Nea Paphos and the Tombs of the Kings. It is, however, less impressive than the latter. The city developed from 1200 BC onwards, at the same time as the cult - of Phoenician origin - dedicated to the goddess of Love, Beauty and Fertility was organized. Described by Homer in The Odyssey at the end of the ^8th century B.C., it was one of the Mediterranean's major religious centers. After the transfer of the city to Nea Paphos in the ^4th century BC, Palaipaphos remained an important place of worship. It was not until the ^4th century AD, with the domination of Christianity, that the cult of Aphrodite disappeared.

Visit. On the left, after the entrance, lie the vast foundations of the sanctuary of Aphrodite. To the south is the first sanctuary built in the Late Bronze Age. It consisted of a temenos (sacred place) in the form of an open courtyard surrounded by a monumental wall of huge limestone blocks. Immediately to the north (near the entrance), partly covering the archaic sanctuary, a Roman sanctuary was built towards the end of the ^1st century A.D. Traces remain of the buildings that surrounded a spacious courtyard: a stoa (gallery) to the north and a larger stoa to the south, connected by a wing to the east. In the eastern part of the site stands the "House of Leda", part of a Roman-period quarter. A shelter protects a large mosaic depicting Leda, seduced by Zeus in the guise of a swan. This work, dating from the ^2nd or ^3rd century, adorned the floor of a reception room in a wealthy villa. Finally, to the south, stands the Covocle manor house. In the ^13th century, the Lusignans established a sugarcane refining center here. Extensively altered by the Ottomans in the ^16th century, the building now houses some of the discoveries made on site. The most important piece is the "black stone" from a meteorite. At 1.25 m high, polished and conical in shape, it is a betyl, a sacred stone around which the archaic sanctuary was designed.