We started our day off by heading west of Limassol once again. This time however, we were traveling to the city Paphos. Our first stop was a little bit outside of the city at Petra Tou Romiou or better known as Aphrodite’s Rock. This was the location in ancient Greek mythology where Aphrodite was born and legend says that anyone who swims counterclockwise three times around the rock, naked, and in a full moon will attain eternal beauty. I thought this was a very interesting belief to the people as it seemed like there were many parts that needed to go together all at the same time for this to work. Another similar belief is that swimming around the rock at midnight will help aid with one’s life in finding love. After roaming and exploring the beach for a little bit we headed back to the bus and headed to our next stop, The Tomb of the Kings.
The Tomb of the Kings was massive and covered a little over 80 acres of land. Each one of the tombs were carved into the original rock and started with a staircase going underground and forming into a bigger room. Once inside the room they were decorated with large pillars and generally had a larger area in the center. Between the walls and the pillars were where most of the bodies were buried. Unfortunately we didn’t have to much time to explore this are as we had to head to our next location.
The House of Dionysius is located right next to Paphos harbor in the Paphos Archeological Park and houses some of the most intricate and unique mosaics I have ever seen. The house was build around the end of the 2nd century and was later destroyed and abandoned. In its place today stands a more modern building but inside still houses the same historical mosaics. The mosaics covered everything from mythological stories as well as unique and cool designs. I think seeing all of these mosaics and learning how they created them was one of the most interesting parts of the trip this far.
