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Paphos, also spelled Pafos, is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of the Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were known as Paphos: Old Paphos in modern Kouklia and Nea Paphos, both of which were at various times the capital of the ancient city-state of Paphos. It is the fourth-largest city in the country, after Nicosia, Limassol, and Larnaca, with an urban population of 55,000.
The modern city of Paphos lies on the Mediterranean coast, about 50 km (30 mi) west of Limassol, the island's largest port; the two cities are connected by the A6 highway. Paphos International Airport is the country's second-largest airport, and serves as a gateway to western and southern Cyprus. The city has a subtropical-Mediterranean climate, and experiences the mildest temperatures on the island.
Paphos was counted as one of the "city-kingdoms of Cyprus" in antiquity. UNESCO inscribed the ruins of ancient Paphos as a World Heritage Site in 1980 under criterion (iii) for its unique testimony to a vanished civilization and criterion (vi) for its direct association with events or traditions of outstanding universal value. The Paphos World Heritage Site is managed by the Cyprus Department of Antiquities.
Paphos is the most seismically active region in Cyprus, according to historical data which shows evidence of several strong earthquakes, some of which caused severe damage, loss of life, and tsunamis. The strongest earthquakes to strike Paphos occurred in 76 AD, 1222 (7.0–7.5), 1953 (6.5 Ms), 1995 (5.9 Mw), 1996 (6.8 Mw) and 2022 (6.6 Mw).
In its foundation myth, the town's name is linked to the goddess Aphrodite, as the eponymous Paphos was the son (or, in Ovid's account, the daughter) of Pygmalion whose ivory cult image of Aphrodite was brought to life by the goddess, as 'milk-white' Galatea.
The Bibliotheke contains a genealogy. Pygmalion was so devoted to the cult of Aphrodite that he took the statue to his palace and kept it on his couch. The daimon of the goddess entered the statue, and the living Galatea bore Pygmalion a son, Paphos, and a daughter, Metharme. Cinyras –either the son of Paphos or the suitor of Metharme– founded the city under Aphrodite's patronage and built the great temple to the goddess there. According to another legend preserved by Strabo (xi. p. 505), it was founded by Agapenor, a hero of the Trojan War. According to Pausanias, a storm drove Agapenor and the Arcadian fleet to Cyprus, where he founded Paphos and established the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaepaphos.
Old Paphos (Palaepaphos) in the modern city Kouklia is on a hill to the east of the modern city. It had a road which spanned a few miles to the sea. Ancient historians described it as near the Zephyrium promontory and the mouth of the Bocarus stream.
Archaeology shows that Palaepaphos has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. It was a centre for Aphrodite's cult. Aphrodite's mythical birthplace was on the island. The founding myth is interwoven with the goddess such that Old Paphos became the most important place for worshipping Aphrodite in the ancient world.
The Greek names of two ancient kings, Etevandros and Akestor, are attested in Cypriot syllabary on objects from the 7th century BC found in Kourion.
The Greeks agreed that Aphrodite had landed at the site of Paphos when she rose from the sea. According to Pausanias (i. 14), although her worship was introduced to Paphos from Syria, it was more likely that it was of Phoenician origin. Before being proven by archaeology it was thought that Aphrodite's cult had been established before the time of Homer (c. 700 BC), as the grove and altar of Aphrodite at Paphos are mentioned in the Odyssey (viii. 362). Archaeology established that Cypriots venerated a fertility goddess in a cult that combined Aegean and eastern mainland aspects before the arrival of the mainland Greeks. Female figurines and charms found in the immediate vicinity date back to the early third millennium. The temenos was well established before the first structures were erected in the Late Bronze Age:
There was unbroken continuity of cult from that time until 391 AD when the Roman Emperor Theodosius I outlawed all pagan religions and the sanctuary fell into the ruins in which we find it today.
— Ashmolean Museum
Old Paphos was the centre of worship for Aphrodite in the Aegean world. The Cinyradae, or descendants of Cinyras, were the chief priests; Greek by name but of Phoenician origin. Their power and authority were great, but it has been inferred from certain inscriptions that they were controlled by a senate and an assembly of the people. There was also an oracle there. The ruins of Aphrodite's vast sanctuary are still discernible, its circumference marked by huge foundation walls. After its destruction by an earthquake it was rebuilt by Vespasian, on whose coins it is represented, as well as on earlier and later ones, and in the style on those of Septimius Severus. From these representations and existing ruins, Gustav Friedrich Hetsch, an architect of Copenhagen, attempted to restore the building.
Nea Paphos ("New Paphos") was founded on the sea near a natural harbour. It lay about 60 stadia or 12 km (7.5 mi) northwest of the old city. According to its own origin myth, Nea Paphos was founded by Agapenor, chief of the Arcadians at the siege of Troy, who, after the capture of the city, was driven to the coast of Cyprus by the storm that separated the Greek fleet as it returned home. (Pausanias viii. 5. § 2.) An Agapenor was mentioned as king of the Paphians in a Greek distich preserved in the Analecta; and Herodotus (vii. 90) alludes to an Arcadian colony in Cyprus.
Nea Paphos was likely founded by Nicocles (d. 306 BC), the last king of Palaepaphos, based on an inscription in the temple of Artemis Agrotera at New Paphos and other historical evidence. The inhabitants of Marion were probably also transferred to this new city after it was destroyed by Ptolemy in 312 BC. A hoard of unused silver coins (in the Cyprus Museum) dating back to the end of the 4th century BC are the earliest find at the site.
Old Paphos always retained its pre-eminence in worship of Aphrodite, and Strabo states that the road leading to it from New Paphos was annually crowded with male and female devotees travelling to the ancient shrine, coming from New Paphos and other towns. When Seneca said (N. Q. vi. 26, Epistle 91) that Paphos was nearly destroyed by an earthquake, it is difficult to say to which of the towns he refers. Cassius Dio (liv. 23) relates that Paphos was restored by Augustus and re-named "Augusta" in his honor; this name has been preserved in inscriptions but never supplanted the original name.
An inscription from the 80s BC speaks of a certain Onesander of Paphos being appointed to the Great Library of Alexandria.
According to the biblical Acts of the Apostles, after landing at Salamis and proclaiming the Word of God in the synagogues, the prophets and teachers, Barnabas and Saul of Tarsus, traveled along the entire southern coast of Cyprus until they reached Paphos. There, Sergius Paulus, the Roman proconsul, was converted after Saul rebuked the sorcerer Elymas. In Paphos, Acts first identifies Saul as Paul.
Tacitus (Hist. ii. 2, 3) records a visit of the youthful Titus to Paphos before he acceded to the empire, who inquired with much curiosity into its history and antiquities. (Cf. Suetonius Titus c. 5.) Under this name, the historian included the ancient as well as the more modern city, and among other traits of the worship of the temple he records that the only image of the goddess was a pyramidal stone.
The sanctuary was closed during the persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire.
The ancient city of Nea Paphos is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is managed as the Paphos Archaeological Park by the Cyprus Department of Antiquities.
Remains discovered at Nea Paphos include four large and elaborate Roman villas dubbed the House of Dionysos, the House of Orpheus, the House of Aion, and the House of Theseus, all with preserved mosaic floors. In addition, excavations have uncovered an agora, Asklepion, the Basilica of Panagia Limeniotissa, a theatre, and a necropolis known as the Tombs of the Kings.
Paphos gradually lost much of its attraction as an administrative centre, particularly after the founding of Nicosia. The city and its port continued to decline throughout the Middle Ages and Ottoman rule, as Nicosia, and the port city of Larnaca became more important.
The city and district continued to lose population throughout the British colonial period and many of its inhabitants moved to Limassol, Nicosia and overseas. The city and district of Paphos remained the most underdeveloped part of the island until 1974.
Following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, there was rapid economic activity in all fields, especially tourism in the Kato Paphos area. The government invested heavily in irrigation dams and water distribution works, road infrastructure and the building of Paphos International Airport, the second international airport in Cyprus.
In the 1980s, Kato Paphos received most of the investment. In the 1990s, Coral Bay Resort was further developed and in the 2000s, the Aphrodite Hills resort was developed.
Today Paphos, with a population of about 35,961 (as of 2018), is a popular tourist resort and is home to a fishing harbour. Ktima is the main residential district while Kato Paphos, by the sea, is built around the medieval port and contains most of the luxury hotels and the entertainment infrastructure of the city. Apostolou Pavlou Avenue (St. Paul's Avenue), the busiest road in Paphos, connects two quarters of the city. It begins near the city centre at Kennedy Square and ends outside the medieval fort at the harbour.
The economy of Paphos is heavily dependent on tourism. There are four resorts in the district: Kato Paphos, Coral Bay, Latchi, and Aphrodite Hills. Kato Paphos, the largest, employs over half of Paphos's population. Farming, especially banana, grape and tobacco cultivation, contributes significantly to Paphos's economy.
Paphos Castle stands by the harbor, and was originally a Byzantine fort built to protect the harbour. It was rebuilt by the Lusignans in the 13th century before being dismantled in 1570 by the Venetians, who were unable to defend it against the Ottomans who restored and strengthened it after capturing the island. Saranta Kolones, near the harbor, is a castle built in the first years of Lusignan rule (beginning of the 12th century) maybe on the site of a previous Byzantine castle. It was destroyed in the earthquake of 1222.
Among the treasures unearthed near Paphos are the mosaics in the Houses of Dionysos, Theseus and Aion, preserved after 16 centuries underground; vaults and caves; the Tombs of the Kings; and the pillar to which Saint Paul was said to have been tied and whipped and the ancient Odeon Theatre. Other places of interest include the Byzantine Museum and the District Archaeological Museum, with its collection of Cypriot antiquities from the Paphos area dating back from the Neolithic Age up to 1700 AD. Near the Odeon are the ruins of the ancient city walls, the Roman agora, and a building dedicated to Asclepius.
The mosaic floors of these elite villas dating from the 3rd to the 5th century are among the finest in the Eastern Mediterranean. They mainly depict scenes from Greek mythology.
The city contains many catacomb sites dating back to the early Christian period. The most famous is Saint Solomoni Church, originally a Christian catacomb retaining some of its 12th century frescoes. A sacred tree at the entrance is believed to cure the ailments of those who hang a personal offering on its branches.
A few kilometres outside the city in Palaepaphos, near modern Kouklia, is the rock Petra tou Romiou, which sits in the sea. According to legend, Aphrodite rose from the waves at this spot. The name is associated with the legendary frontier-guard of Byzantine times, Digenis Acritas, who kept the marauding Saracens at bay. It is said that to repel one attack he heaved a large rock at his enemy.
Near Petra tou Romiou is Palaepaphos, founded in the 17th century BC and the seat of the ancient city-state of Paphos. The ruins of the Sanctuary of Aphrodite Paphia stand here, dating back as early as the 12th century BC. The temple was one of the most important places of Aphrodite's cult and pilgrimage of the ancient world until the 3rd–4th centuries AD. The museum, housed in the Lusignan Manor, houses artifacts from the area.
Geroskipou is a town in Paphos's metropolitan area known for its delight 'loukoumi'.
North-east of Paphos lies Agios Neophytos Monastery, known for its "encleistra" (enclosure) carved out of the mountain by the hermit himself, which features some Byzantine frescoes from the 12th and 15th centuries. The painted village church of Emba (Empa) is nearby.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Paphos”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.