Welcome to Cyprus, land of Greek mythology and home to Aphrodite. Cyprus has over 11,000 years of history; artifacts related to the Stone Age have been found here, and water wells found in Western Cyprus are believed to be among the oldest in the world. Adding to its archaeological lure is the fact that it is located on one of only two land masses (Iran occupies the other one) created in the plate tectonic shift.
One hundred million years ago Cyprus was completely covered in water. It is this image of Cyprus having come from the sea that is believed to have inspired the legend of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess associated with love, beauty, pleasure, passion and procreation, who is said to have been born from the sea. Almost all of the Greek gods were worshipped in Cyprus, but Aphrodite was the star of the show. Archaeological evidence and inscriptions show numerous sanctuaries and temples dedicated to her. We visited Pafos, home to the House of Dionysus, famous for the mosaics found during the excavation of a Roman nobleman’s villa from the 3rd Century. As impressive as the craftsmanship of the mosaics is how well-preserved they are.
The mosaics were created using small pebbles from the area’s stones. Most of them contain scenes from Greek mythology and help tell the history of the area. The oldest ones found date back to 600 BC; others are from the 2nd Century AD. While the older mosaics contain scenes from Greek mythology, the newer ones have Christian references, reflecting the introduction of Christianity in the area around 47 AD.
We stopped for lunch at a seaside restaurant in Kourion where we had time to play in the water.
After lunch we visited another site of ruins, which had a massive theater and a 5th Century AD villa with 25 rooms. The theater was built in the 7th Century BC and is still used for performances today. The villa provides evidence of how advanced folks were in the 5th Century – pipes confirm they had running water; there was a large bath area with marble floors and evidence of a steam room. It was pretty impressive.
And we learned something else today – the reason a fish is the international symbol of Christianity. The Greek spelling of the word fish is an anagram for: Jesus Christ Son of God. Pretty cool, eh?
The views along the way were incredible! 
There are acres and acres of excavation sites like this one… 
…hiding mosaics like this one. 
Most of the mosaics include images related to Greek mythology. 
The mosaics fill entire rooms. 
Mosaics also fill entire corridors. 
It is thought that a palace occupied this site; throughout the area you can see giant mosaics. 
We stopped in a picturesque lunch stop. 
A couple of the guys went skinny dipping… 
Our guys weren’t quite so brave (Ken and our Australian friend “Big Bob” 
Pam and our friends Andy and Kathy 
The amphitheater was fantastic.
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