Today, our group traveled to the foothills of the Troodos Mountains to see the village of Kakopetria and the St Nicholas of the Roof Church. Kakopetria Village was beautiful. When were first arrived we were in the new part of the city. There were pomegranates, lemon, and bay leafs planted. We then we walked to the old city, and on the way there was a hotel with a restaurant. The building was made to resemble the old building, and the materials it used was volcanic rock, cane, and wood. Around the hotel there was a stream and a lot of trees. Some of the trees were carob trees and bay leafs. The old city was very cool. There we went into an old olive mill. We saw the wheel they used to crush the olives and the press to collect the juice. The cobblestone paths were pretty along with the houses that were also made out of stone. The houses were made of mudclay and river stone mixed with mountain stone.

Before we went to Kakopetria, we stopped at the St Nicholas of the Roof Church. It was a beautiful church with many old paintings inside of depictions of the scenes from the bible. Some of the painting there were from as early as the 11th century. The technique used of the paintings was called fresco and it was developed by the church to make the paint last longer. We also couldn’t take any pictures in the church in order not to damage the paintings. This church was uncommon for the mountains because it had a dome, and there weren’t many built after that because it costs more to have the dome due to the weather conditions. In the dome, there was an image of Jesus and under him were angels. There were many other images including many with the Virgin Mary. It was incredible to see such old images and learn about the history behind them.