Ancient traces in Paphos

First stop today: the Royal Tombs of Paphos. UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most important cities in Cyprus from the Hellenistic period. Contrary to the name, there were no kings buried in these burial chambers carved into the soft rock, but rich Romans and Hellenes. It's a huge necropolis, but honestly: Salamis was more interesting, and compared to Petra (Jordan) the tombs are very simple.

However, understanding the facility is also made difficult by the tour guide Xenon's strange German. He speaks of houses with rooms in which people lived and slept. When asked, he said that they only did that after her death... At least, in addition to the fact that many tourists were in bathing suits - which didn't look nice on everyone - it was an entertaining aspect.

The archaeological zone of Paphos is all the more impressive with its mosaics from Greek and Roman times. The mosaics were in several layers on top of each other and mostly date from the 3rd/4th century. Century AD They depict scenes from Greek mythology, for example the sea monster Scylla, the legend of Pyramus and Thisbe (which is very reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet: they are not allowed to love each other because they come from different backgrounds, and due to a misinterpretation they both end up committing suicide Suicide.) or of Theseus (Minotaur, the bull and Ariadne with her thread).

The tour guide has a few exciting interpretations, the accuracy of which I cannot say, but which definitely make you think. According to him, the Greeks were the first to depict the gods like humans and not, for example, with an animal head or body. And among them the gods were bad; they robbed, murdered and raped, while the people were good.

There are other historical sites spread across the city of Paphos, for example the early Christian basilica Chrysopolitissa with the Paul's Column (Saul's bump... the shape can give you non-Christian ideas), where the Apostle Paul was supposedly tied to The Roman governor had him given 40 lashes for spreading Christianity.

But it's hot, and your attention span is slowly approaching zero. Accordingly, the next mosaics, the quarry (there is a legend about a king's daughter and a giant) and the underground church of Agía Solomonís are ticked off with no motivation.