Today we visited the ancient city-kingdom of Kourion! This 3,000 year old site was positioned right next to the ocean and the view was incredible. We walked through the ruins and saw remnants of hot and cold baths and ancient plumbing systems used to gather rainwater—which we got to see in action with the drizzly weather we had today! The preserved mosaics gave us a glimpse into how beautiful this city was! In Kourion, we also saw an open air Greco-Roman theater. Greek architecture embraced being close to nature and using the environment, which was clear in this theater. The semicircular stone theater faces the sea and is still used today!

Our second stop was Kolossi Castle, where we learned about sugar production, carob beans, and Commandaria wine. Kolossi Castle had less of a militaristic role and was used more for agriculture and administration. Next to the castle was a sugar production facility from the era. The original castle—likely built around the 13th century—was replaced with a larger castle in 1454. It offered a great view from the roof and I was excited to see a draw bridge in person!

There are cats everywhere you turn here! I really enjoyed our tour guide telling us the legend about why there is such a large cat population. According to her, when Saint Helen first came to Cyprus, she was dismayed at the amount of snakes on the island. She later returned to the island with a boatload of 100 cats, which she entrusted to a local monastery. The cats got ride of the snake problem and is now named Holy Monastery of St Nicholas of the Cats!