Today was an amazing day of sightseeing, which not only taught me so much more about Cyprus’s history and culture, but also completely redefined how I thought of the island from a geographical standpoint. This was our first time leaving the plains and beaches that are plentiful throughout the country, and traveling into the Troodos mountain range to the town of Kakopetria. There was a stunning amount of greenery everywhere we looked, not only all around the buildings but interwoven with them as well. The town was very compact, with tight streets that could barely fit the width of one car across, and buildings tucked into the sides of mountains. In our free time here, we found a path to go hiking up one of the surrounding mountains and got a great overhead view of the town, where we noticed the similar red roofs and white walls of each building in addition to a view of the ocean in the distance.

Prior to our visit to Kakopetria, we stopped to visit the St. Nicholas of the Roof church just outside the town. This was an amazing small church hidden by the surrounding mountains and greenery with beautiful paintings on its every wall and ceiling. I was very interested in learning the origin of this church’s unique name, and it turned out that it was named this because it actually has two roofs. The first one was a dome which has many paintings on the inside, and the second one was a straight roof added above the original later on. The paintings throughout the interior are rich in color and meaning, depicting countless biblical figures, including Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and many prophets. It was fascinating to think about the work that must have been put into them many years ago, especially for the intricate designs high up on the ceiling and walls. This seemed like a great place for the small community of this area to gather and worship, surrounded by both beautiful manmade and natural scenery.