Palaepaphos (Sanctuary of Aphrodite) and Kouklia Museum

Palaepaphos, or Old Paphos, is an ancient sanctuary and settlement at Kouklia, about fifteen kilometres south-east of modern Paphos on the south-west coast of Cyprus. It was the cult centre of Aphrodite from the late Bronze Age, with the first sanctuary built around the 12th century BCE, and pilgrims continued to visit it until the cult was suppressed in the late 4th century CE. According to myth, the goddess came ashore nearby, and Petra tou Romiou, the rock on the coast to the west, is traditionally called her birthplace. The sanctuary was once the seat of the kings of Paphos and was the most important religious site on the island in the Greek and Roman periods. The remains include walls of the Late Bronze Age sanctuary built of huge ashlar blocks, a Roman-period building known as the Northern Hall, a stone cone representing the goddess that is displayed in the museum, and later fortifications. A medieval manor house, built by the Lusignans in the 13th century on top of the sanctuary and later expanded by the Ottomans, houses the Kouklia Museum. The museum displays finds from the sanctuary and from the surrounding region, including pottery, terracotta figurines, inscriptions in the Cypriot syllabic script, and the Rock of Aphrodite stone. Its rooms are organised broadly chronologically and thematically, with an emphasis on the cult. Excavations by the Cyprus Department of Antiquities and a Swiss-German team from the University of Zurich and the University of Konstanz have been conducted at various times in the 20th and 21st centuries. The remains are partly consolidated, and the building is protected as a heritage monument. Many outer areas remain unexcavated, so the visit is largely an experience of foundations and fields beside the museum.