Our first port of call was Limassol, Cyprus. I didn’t know anything about Cyprus, other than it is an island in the eastern Mediterranean. The Greeks and Turks have been fighting over Cyprus for centuries. Currently, half of Cyprus is an independent republic and the other half is occupied by Turkey. Just like in Israel, there is a ”green line” that divides the country. No other country, other than Turkey, recognizes the occupied territory, but the Republic of Cyprus is recognized by the rest of the world. There are two official languages, Greek and Turkish, but these languages are spoken in their respective halves of the country. Cypriots are independent, but very heavily Greek oriented, at least in the Republic of Cyprus.
The history of the island is so very similar to Malta, including an important visit by St. Paul and later occupation by the Crusaders. Early in the 1800s, Cyprus came under British rule until some time in the 1970s. Our tour guide, Olga, an immigrant from Belarus who has made Cyprus her home, said that Cypriots are grateful to the Brits because the country was modernized and developed. The Brits left a solid infrastructure of roads, electrical grid, water systems, etc., and so Cyprus has continued to develop as a modern country.
Our tour was from Limassol to another city, Pafos, which was an ancient capital and important seaport. We like the look of Cyprus. The part we saw, the southwestern area, was not overdeveloped. It was agricultural with rolling hills. What struck me the most was how neat, clean and tidy everything was, homes, roadways, villages, and archaeological sites. That was refreshing to see.
Our first stop was a seaside site where Aphrodite was born. Olga gave us a very thorough Greek mythology lesson. We noticed that lots of businesses and places have Aphrodite in their name and she is quite an important figure in Cyprus. Pafos became a center of the worship of the goddess Aphrodite.
It was a beautiful location.
We then traveled on to an archeological site near Pafos called Tomb of the Kings. This is an underground necropolis from the 4th century BC that is carved out of solid rock. The name came from the extravagance of the tombs, although no kings were buried here. This was a rich peoples’ burial ground. It was quite amazing to go underground and see such large chambers containing niches and small rooms that held the dead. There were tunnels connecting many of the chambers which seemed to go quite a distance underground, all carved out of solid rock.
Our final stop was the Pafos Archeological Park right at the harbor in Pafos. This dig site is a pretty big one and several ancient Greek and Roman villas were uncovered. As I mentioned, Pafos was a very important port city in ancient times. Wealthy merchants settled near the port and built elaborate villas. A particularly important excavation was of Roman mosaics. We saw very similar mosaics when we visited a Roman villa in Sicily. The detail, especially in the hunt scenes with animals, was amazing.
There was also a lovely lighthouse nearby and nice views of the coast and harbor.
Back on board the ship we rested a bit and then went to the early show which was a one woman play by Deborah Eliezer. The story was about her father, an Arab Jew born in a once cosmopolitan Iraq, who became a member of the Zionist underground in the aftermath of WWII, who then emigrated to America. In telling her father’s story she comes to a fuller understanding of her own identity, American, Arab, Jew. I thought it was a good story and in the background contained projected photographs of life in Iraq during her father’s childhood, and some of the underground activity going on after the war.
After the show we had dinner and then went for a stroll on deck. We met a lovely couple from Capetown, South Africa, Mem and Amanda. We really enjoyed talking with them.
And that brought the end of a nice day in Cyprus.