Cyprus tour to Aphrodite's island

February 15-24, 2003

Price $2450, Single Supplement $295, Deposit $600

Early Booking Price, before October 15, 2003: $2150

Regular Price, from October 15, 2003: $2450

Single Supplement $306, Deposit $600

Tour Director: Professor Peter Gravgaard

Travel Information

The easiest way to get from the USA to to the Republic of Cyprus (the Greek South) is to fly from the USA to Britain and there transfer to a flight to Larnaca Airport, Cyprus. Just ask your travel agent. (Please note that the tour price does not include airfare.)

Itinerary

Day 1 (February 15, 2003)

You fly from the USA to Britain and change to a flight to Larnaca Airport, the Republic of Cyprus (Greek).

Day 2 (February 16, 2003)

You arrive at Larnaca Airport, Cyprus, where you will be met by your tour director, Peter Gravgaard. He will take you to your very comfortable hotel between Paphos and Limassol, where we will stay for four nights. Welcome dinner in the evening, when the tour program will be explained.

Day 3 (February 17, 2003)

Today we will visit a couple of interesting sites near Larnaca. Beside the great salt lake (home to overwintering flamingoes and other migratory birds) stands the Tekke of Hala Sultan (Monastery of the Pious Lady). Here is buried Umm Haram ("the pious lady"). She was the wife of the caliph's deputy in Syria, who accompanied her husband in 649 on a raid on Byzantine Cyprus. Unfortunately, her mule stumbled on the lake shore and - in the words of the historian, Ibn Al Attir, she "broke her pellucid neck and yielded up her victorious soul." The manner of her death had earlier been fortold by the Prophet Mohammed on awaking from falling asleep in her lap while she had been combing his head for lice. As one of the earliest Muslim believers and a personal friend of Mohammed, Umm Haram's shrine was claimed to be the third most important pilgrimage site in the Muslim world, especially after 1787, when a tekke, an informal Ottoman monastery, was established close to the tomb.

At Kiti you must see the church of Panayia Angeloktistos, "Our Lady built by Angels," which has one of the most glorious mosaics in Cyprus, rivalling the Ravenna Mosaics - a golden 6th century mosaic of the Virgin and Child, surrounded by the archangels Michael and Gabriel.

In the Larnaca suburbs we would like to visit the Kition Excavations with the Temple of the Goddess. This is a version of Paradise, the enclosed Garden of the Great Goddess, Demeter, Astarte, Aphrodite.

Time permitting, we would also like to show you the Kolossi Castle, built in 1302 by the Knights Hospitallers of St John. We return to the hotel for dinner.

Day 4 (February 18, 2003)

Today we visit Paphos and its surroundings. First, in Nea (lower) Paphos, we visit the famous Paphos Mosaics - one of the aesthetic highlights of this tour. They are housed in several separate shelters: the houses of Dionysos, Aion, Theseus and Orpheus and contain a collection of mosaics which range in age from the earliest 3rd century pebble mosaics almost to the dawning of Christian Byzantium. The astonishing mixture of themes include Scylla sinking a ship, Narcissus admiring himself in the pool, the triumph of Dionysos, Hippolytus dressed only in his hunting boots, rejecting the amorous advances of his step-mother, the rape of the shepherd-boy Ganymede and scenes from hunting and the natural world. The most acclaimed mosaic is in the Villa of Theseus, almost certainly once the administrative palace of the Roman governor. The central medallion celebrates the victory of Theseus over the damaged minotaur, while Ariadne and the goddess of Crete look on approvingly. Around the medallion, the intricate geometric patterns depict the labyrinth, and you can even follow Ariadne's thread which helped Theseus to find his way out! The four corners of the room are filled with gorgeous lily mosaics.

As we leave Nea Paphos and head north up Apostolou Pavlou (St Paul's Ave) look out for the Catacombs of Ayia Solomoni on the east side, opposite the Apollo Hotel. Their entrance is marked by a prayer tree, where many visitors to the shrine have tied seven-times-knotted handkerchiefs to a tree, believing that their prayers are repeated every time the rags flutter in the breeze. St Solomoni was a pre-Christian Jewish heroine who, together with her seven sons, the Seven Maccabee brothers, was tortured to death for refusing to eat pork. She was canonized early and is well established in popular Cypriot Christianity.

Just 2km further north of Nea Paphos are the Tombs of the Kings, a series of underground burial chambers carved out of the living rock and colonized by wild cyclamen in Winter and Spring. The more substantial tombs are numbered from one to eight. They were actually made, not for kings, but rather for the ruling families of Macedonian officials who governed Cyprus from Egypt during the tumultuous period following the death of Alexander the Great. The inspiration for these tombs may be Egyptian, but the architecture is wholly Greek. We descend down rock-cut stairways to the open subterranean courtyards whose Doric architecture mirrors the houses of the living. They would originally have been plastered and painted in bright colours, like all Greek temples, and some had their own wells and possibly also statues and gardens in the courtyard. Off the courtyards are chambers lined with rectangular openings for individual burials with headstones and altar niches for libations and offerings of food by relatives of the dead. There are many small openings for infants, who were often buried inside a terracotta pipe. Be sure not to miss tombs No.3 and No.4 which are particularly good examples of Hellenistic architecture.

The Tombs were still in use as burial chambers until the city was destroyed in the 7th century, and several were adapted for other purposes in medieval times. No.5 was used as a pottery, No.6 became a Gothic chapel and someone even added a chimney to No.3!

On to the important Monastery of Ayios Neophytos which was founded in 1170 by followers of St Neophytus the Recluse. He had turned away from the ways of the world by enlarging a cave in the mountainside into a two-roomed hermitage, comprising a chapel and living room, complete with rock-hewn coffin and table, chair, desk and shelf for his quill pens. He responded to this threat of distraction from his spiritual life by fleeing still higher up the mountain and finding an even remoter cave in which to meditate and write his religious works. Stone steps have been built so that it is possible to go inside the saint's original two-roomed cell, which has some extraordinary frescoes, as does the 16th century church below.

We return to our hotel for dinner.

Day 5 (February 19, 2003)

Cyprus is the island of Aphrodite, and we will today examine some sites that might explain that connection. First we will visit the Temple of Aphrodite at Palea Paphos, in the village of Kouklia, some 16 km southeast of Paphos, off the main road to Limassol. The sanctuary was in existence in the 11th century BC and continued to flourish well into the Christian era before being formally closed down by Emperor Theodosius at the end of the 4th century AD. In view of its great age it is not surprising that so little remains: there is only a group of limestone blocks which are believed to have been part of the wall surrounding the sacred precinct with the altar of Aphrodite. A polished black phallic stone found nearby and now displayed in the small local museum, has been identified as the altar of Aphrodite. Black phallic stones were also widely associated with the cult of Cybele, the ancient Anatolian fertility goddess; and similar objects are, to this day, revered in Indian temples to Hindu goddesses. (A visit to the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates, west of Kourion, will also be helpful to our understanding of the Temple of Aphrodite.)

Our next Aphrodite site is the village of Yeroskipou, and I will take the liberty of quoting from the excellent CADOGAN GUIDE, by Barnaby Rogerson (which I recommend that you buy as an introduction to our tour - see p.271):

"The name Yeroskipou recalls its origin as the Hiero Skepos, the Sacred Gardens, of the patron goddess of Cyprus. It was an established staging post for the pilgrims landing at Paphos and journeying out to the shrine at Palea Paphos. This famous garden is one of three known sites on the island dedicated to the sexual rites of Paphian Aphrodite that has helped give the monotheistic world its image of paradise. The Hiero Skepos was a walled sanctuary, watered by its own sacred springs and filled with flowers, vines and venerable trees under whose shade devotees honoured Aphrodite with random sex. From the surviving descriptions it is not clear if the temple prostitutes were ordinary island women doing temporary duty or professional priestesses. The role played by the bejewelled temple boys (known from a number of reclining statues) is also a mystery. Yeroskipou is also the traditional site of the biblical vineyard of Engadi, as referred to in the 'Song of Songs': 'my beloved is unto me as a cluster [of Cyprus grapes] in the vineyard of Engadi.' This initially confusing cross reference between the pagan and Judaic worlds makes abundant sense if you accept the reading of the 'Song of Solomon' as no mere piece of secular semitic eroticism but as verses from the tragedy of Adonis where Aphrodite goes in search of her dead lover. This annual festival was held in spring, but fortunately the long days of mournful search were followed by a riotous celebration of his return, which one can only picture as a combination of Easter, a teenage toga party and Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

The sacred garden of Engadi was last seen by Rudolph von Suchen in 1340, who reported that its like is nowhere to be found, for it was wonderfully fruitful, four square miles in expanse and hidden within mountain walls. Rudolph had perhaps crossed over that delicate frontier between mythology and mythologizing, but lovers of arcana will be relieved to hear that it was safely in the hands of the Knights Templars, who are seldom far from a good mystery."

From Yeroskipou we continue to Petra tou Romiou where we will stop to view the pair of rocks in the sea which are, according to legend, the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, the "foam borne". And, if your imagination cannot compliment the scenery with a fitting vision of the Great Lady of Love, you can always visualize Botticelli's Birth of Venus.

From here I suggest we visit the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates (Apollo of the Woodland) near the Kourion escarpment.

We return for our fourth and last night in our first hotel.

Day 6 (February 20, 2003)

For the next two nights our hotel base will be in Agros village. This is the chief village of the Pitsilia area and one of the most interesting mountain villages of Cyprus. From this base we will visit a selection of exquisitely painted churches, which are the hidden treasures of this outwardly poor part of the island.

As we wend our way to Agros we will visit the famous and much visited Kykko Monastery in the Marathasa region, with its priceless icon of the Virgin Mary painted from life by the Evangelist, St Luke.

Next we visit the picturesque Monastery of Ayios Ioannis (St John), Lambadhistis which is actually several different churches with paintings ranging from the 11th to the 16th centuries. The so-called Latin chapel is covered with the finest Italian Renaissance frescoes in Cyprus with an unusual mixture of Orthodox and Catholic subject matter. The restored wooden monastery buildings with barns, wine and olive presses should also not be missed, as they remind us of how so many of the island's ancient monasteries would once have looked when they were working communities.

Later we will see the Chapel of Panayia tou Moutoulla (Virgin Mary of Moutoullas). The building was built and decorated in 1280 and is typical of this region, with a steep pitched roof and simple nave of stone and mudbricks enclosed by an outer wall which makes a covered walkway around the chapel. It has not been altered, and the painted interior, though damaged, is still intact.

On to the 15th century painted Church of Arkhangelos Mikhail (Archangel Michael) at Pedhoulos village with its lively rustic frescoes and iconostasis.

And so to our hotel at Agros with its lovely view of the Agros valley, celebrated for its fragrant rose water and almond groves

Day 7 (February 21, 2003)

Today we explore the Pitsilia area. First we visit the Chapel of Ayios Mamas (Saint Mamas) in Louveras village, just 16 km south of Agros by road. St Mamas is one of Cyprus's most idiosyncratic and venerated saints. He was a local hermit, living in holy poverty, who refused to pay poll tax to the Byzantine Duke of Cyprus. When soldiers came to arrest him, a ferocious lion barred their path. St Mamas tamed the lion and rode it into the Duke's courthouse, whereupon he was pardoned and exempted for life from paying tax! He is depicted riding his lion on the north side, just before the iconostasis, in this chapel packed with late 15th century frescoes.

Next to Timios Stavros (Holy Cross) in Pelendria village, a distinctive triple-aisled basilica with fourteen scenes from the Life of the Virgin. Unusually, in the meetiing between Mary and Elizabeth their as yet unborn babies, Jesus and John, are also depicted.

Back to Agros and an opportunity to explore the village before dinner.

Day 8 (February 22, 2003)

We leave Agros and head for Nicosia, where we spend the next two nights.

On the way we will visit the late 12th century domed Church of Panayia tou Araka (Virgin Mary of the Pea) at Lagoudhera village and the renowned 15th century Church of Stavros tou Ayiasmati (Cross of the Holy Well) outside Platanistasa village.

Day 9 (February 23, 2003)

Neither Berlin nor Beirut are divided any more - this dubious distinction is particular to Lefkosia (Nicosia). Today you will have the possibility of visiting Southern (Greek) Nicosia first and, if you are interested, you may safely walk into Northern (Turkish) Nicosia - as long as you enter and return by crossing over on foot at the LEDRA PALACE CHECKPOINT and return promptly within the permitted time.

Sights to see in Southern (Greek) Nicosia include the Venetian Walls, the outstanding Cyprus Archeological Museum, the Byzantine (Icon) Museum, the Cyprus Handicraft Center, the Famagusta Gate, the Cathedral of Ayios Ioannis, the Makarios III Cultural Center, the Mansion of Hadji-Georgakis Kornesios.

In Northern (Turkish) Nicosia the Gothic Cathedral of St Sophia (now serving the Turks as the "Selimye Mosque" was originally modelled on the cathedrals of Sens and Notre Dame de Paris in France. You should also see the old Haydarpasa Mosque (the medieval church of St Catherine) and the mansion of Dervish Pasa as well as the Buyuk Han (Great Inn or Caravanserai) which was built for the use of passing merchants and travellers. There is also the 17th century Kumarcilar Han (Inn of the Gamblers or Caravanserai of Travelling Minstrels)

In the evening we will have our FAREWELL DINNER.

Day 10 (February 24, 2003)

It is the last day of the Cyprus Tour. We drive you to Larnaca Airport for your flight to England where you transfer to your return flight to the USA.

Safe Journey!

Bibliography

Lawrence Durrell, Bitter Lemons, London, 1957
George Hill, A History of Cyprus, 4 vols.
David Hunt, (editor), Footsteps on Cyprus
Desmond Morris, Art of Ancient Cyprus
Barnaby Rogerson, Cyprus (Cadogan Island Guides)
Steven Runciman, History of the Crusades, vol. 3