Today we started our journey to Paphos. On the way we stopped at a few sites that I found very interesting. We stopped at the ancient city of Kourion first. Then we went to Aphrodite’s Rock. Afterwards, we visited the Tomb of the Kings. Finally, after lunch we visited the Paphos Mosaics.

The ancient city of Kourion was very interesting to me. There were pathways walking over the weathered buildings where we could see the patterns they put there long ago. The city is almost 2000 years old. They used irrigation systems with water from the mountains to gain access to hydration and bathing. There was also a large theater where they would go to watch different performances.

Next we went to Aphrodite’s Rock where we got some nice pictures. It is said that this is where Aphrodite rose from the foam of the sea. We climbed to the top of a large rock formation to get a good view of the rock.

After this, we went to the Tomb of the Kings. Here we saw two tombs, one that has been restored, and one that hasn’t. These tombs were for the high officials of Paphos dating back to the third century. This means that these tombs where built over 1500 years ago. There are still some archaeological excavations going on today.

Finally, we visited the Paphos Mosaics. Our tour guide told us some very interesting stories about the art we saw. The story I found most interesting was about Pyramus and Thisbe. These two were said to be in love, but they were told they were not allowed to marry by their parents. They decided to run away into the forest. Thisbe got ahead of Pyramus and ran into a wild animal. She was wearing some sort of scarf and as she ran away from the animal it fell off of her. The animal picked up the scarf and kept it in its mouth. When Pyramus found the animal he was under the impression that the animal had eaten her. In response, he killed himself. Whenever Thisbe found his body, she killed herself. This story then caught the attention of an English playwright named William Shakespeare. He continued on to write Romeo and Juliet. This mosaic is said to have been one of the oldest in the world, and is likely the first documentation of this story.

Overall, I enjoyed the day and we are now going to spend some time at the beach for the evening.