Today we spent the day at Paphos. We started at Aphrodite’s Rock. The legend behind it is really interesting. It is so cool to be able to see and visit the supposed birthplace of a goddess. The legend about it is still going on right now is very intriguing. It is said that if you swim between Aphrodite’s rock and another one at midnight naked(not 100% sure about this last detail but I know some people said it) that you will receive good fortune. Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty and love, so for a girl if they do this they receive the gift of beauty and if a guy does this they receive eternal youth. There is also a tree by the rock where couples tie ribbons to help keep their relationship strong with Aphrodite’s help.
After the rock we went on a tour of the Tomb of the Kings. The tombs were so intricate and cool looking. It must have taken so long for these tombs to be made just for a couple of people to be buried there, and then they were sealed. The people believed that the final resting place of a person has to be left untouched for them to have a good afterlife. This is why I find it so upsetting that all of the tombs were disturbed and the bodies all moved. I understand that people are curious and want to learn more about the time but I feel like they should have left the bodies untouched to respect the people’s cultures. There was a baby that was found hidden under so many different layers. I believe there was a reason that the baby was hidden and it was probably so the baby could have a good afterlife. Then people just came in and kept digging until they found the baby and they shipped its body off.
We then went on a tour of the Mosaics. It was so cool that these Mosaics were still mostly intact. Some of them are over a thousand years old, which is unbelievable. They were also used as a floor and that didn’t destroy them somehow. Also back then they didn’t have many tools so all of this took precision and a lot of work. I could not imagine how stressful this job was because you pretty much have only one shot to make everything perfect. The mosaics all showed different scenes that have importance to the culture in different ways.
All of the sites that we saw today were really impressive. Everything that they were able to do all of those years ago when they didn’t have the technology that we have now is unbelievable. They were really creative and intricate in their designs and it is so amazing.
