Hello all, welcome to blog #4 of my trip to Cyprus! For today’s agenda, our first stop was the ancient Kourion archaeological site. At the site, we were able to visit two locations. The first was a Roman-style amphitheater. It was originally built in the 2nd century B.C. in the Greek style and was more circular. However, it was destroyed by a series of earthquakes and rebuilt by the Romans until the 4th century A.D., when it was abandoned. This theater was directly next to an overlook of Episkopi Bay, which had a path leading to the House of Eustolius, our next location. Similarly to the amphitheater, this house had to be remodeled due to the earthquakes during the 4th century A.D. It had 36 small rooms with floors covered in tile art. One of my favorite parts of the remains was a tile that read, “Enter for the good luck of the house,” because it shows the hospitality of the time.

After exploring the site, we had a nice lunch break, where we could dine with a very outgoing and persistent cat. Then we carried on to the second place on our agenda, the Limassol Castle. This castle was awesome! The doorways to each room were much smaller than the standard doors used for modern entrances. The walls contained many inscribed stones with depictions of people and religious figures. The castle was used as a prison by the Romans during their reign in Cyprus, and was destroyed by the Venetians and reconstructed in the 15th century. There were also many photos showing the difference between the Byzantine (9th-16th century) and Gothic Renaissance (13th-16th century) church architecture. I also thought it was cool how there were colorful glazed bowls that had pictures of people scratched into them, and a beheaded skeleton of a Cypriot soldier that had been mutilated during the Turkish siege. I enjoyed how there was a wide range of artifacts within the castle that each had their own story.