Sunday, May 14th

Today we spent the day in Paphos and on our drive there we stopped at Petra Tou Romiou which is also known as Aphrodite’s rock. She is the goddess of love and beauty, according to theology she was born from the foam in the waters of Paphos. The beach and the rocks there were beautiful, just as Aphrodite was said to have been. There was not much to learn there, but it was definitely a cute spot for photos. 

Next we journeyed to the Tomb of Kings. These tombs date back to the fourth century BC and they were carved directly out of rock from the mountain. These tombs were likely the burial place of high officials and other upper class people of the time to honor them in death. These tombs were impressively large and contained aspects like columns and artwork that made the tombs a respectful place to bury the dead. We did not know until the mid 1900’s how old these tombs really were. This is because at one point in history, prisoners on the island were sent to clear out the tombs to make them suitable for other uses. In this process they discarded any evidence of the tombs’ history, but all was not lost. A much later excavation found the body of a young child hidden in the side of a burial chamber. This child allowed historians to determine the period of the tombs’ construction and date it back to the fourth century. 

Our last stop of the day was the House of Dionysus which is home to almost six thousand square feet of mosaics. These beautiful stone works were built in the second century AD and despite their age, they are still almost entirely intact. They were made by cutting stones of varying colors into small squares to form the desired patterns. The first mosaic at the entrance of the house is likely one of the oldest mosaics in Europe. It was made exclusively from black and white stones to create an image that tells the story of an ancient Greek myth. There were many other mosaics in the House of Dionysus which likely belonged to a wealthy merchant when they first were created. Many of these mosaics depicted scenes from Greek tales as well as geometric patterns. In many of these mosaics there is a swastika depicted and one thing I had never known was that the swastika was originally a peaceful symbol that represented life. It is interesting that the original meaning was transformed into one of fear and destruction as time passed.