Kykkos (Kykkou) Monastery

Kykkos Monastery is the richest and most lavish of the monasteries of Cyprus. It sits near a mountain peak, at 1,318 meters in the northwest Troodos Mountains. The monastery was founded sometime at the end of the 11th century. The original monastery has burned, as have subsequent buildings. The icon of Theotokos (Virgin Mary) was a "gift" to the Cypriot hermit Isaiah who miraculous cured the daughter of emperor Alexios 1 Komnenos (1081-1118 AD). According to legend, Isaiah requested the icon and funds to pay for construction of a monastery fitting the honours of housing this sacred relic. The icon is not to be gazed up under penalty of blindness and is covered in elaborated draping. A very small portion of the icon is visible through the draping and is displayed in the "dripping with gold" sanctuary, where we encountered many making a pilgrimage. Photography is not permitted in the sanctuary, but it was AMAZING! Main entrance with beautiful and brillant mosaics.

View of the 3-Bells tower just up the hill.

View of courtyard just to our right, galleries line the walkways on both levels.

Closer view of the inner passageway, this leads to the sanctuary and the icon. Note the Cypriot flag flying by the bell tower.

Christine models the bright purple robes women & men (scott included) are required to wear, as neither knees nor shoulders are acceptable. Christine wore a full abaya and sheyla to gain entrance to The Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi (also out of respect for religious culture). It wasn't a big deal for either of us, just a bit uncomfortable in the heat.

Dream sequence mural on wall of upper gallery.

Other side of same doorway's mural features the icon of Virgin Mary being venerated.

Vaulted ceiling were also covered with elaborate murals featuring Bible stories. Scott thought the ship in full sail was pretty interesting, note one at other end of the corridor as well.

Stunning Mural of an Angel (?). All the writing throughout was in Greek, saved us time, but was often confused and educationally challenged.

Believe this is St. Luke, who was known to have visited Cyprus and been a major influence on Christianity's spread throughout the island.

Mosaic, perhaps a plague of locusts being let loose?

Noah's Arch Mosaic with rabbit & raven on rock.

This was one of Christine's favorites, the colors were stunning!

Burning Bush mosaic, note the small white cross on mountain top (left side.) These last four mosaics were side by side on a gallery walkway and are indicative of many, many more!

The monestary is in the Troodos Mountains. You can see the road snaking about half way down in this photo. Our drive was 1 1/2 hours of twisting and narrow mountain roads up and back down the mountain. It was exhausting for Scott navigating a left-hand manual transmission and driving on the wrong side of the road all the way up, not to mention Christine's gasps of fright at sheer drop offs, hair-pin turns and on-coming traffic. While visiting several shops after our tour, Scott noticed cold Keo Beer for sale. We shared one and it was so calming and refreshing, that Scott purchased another to share on the way back down. The 1 1/2 hour drive back down, when this photo was taken, was much, much easier on both our nerves. Normally I'm not much on mixing beer and driving, but we got down the mountain and were still talking to each other!

Credit for our making the effort to experience Kykkos Monastery must be given to Christine's previous boss Linda Jackson at Ozzie, Ltd in Corydon. She often spoke of this fabulous site and Keo beer. Thank you Linda; here's to you. Cheers!

Love to you all,

Christine and Scott

Kathikas Village, Cyprus

Kathikas Village, just a 6K drive further up the hill from Peyia, is exactly how I pictured Cyprus. Please join me to tour a typical hill town, thousands of which dot the countryside in Cyprus. Driving into Kathikas you first notice how narrow and winding are the streets. Stone buildings, tavernas, grocery stores and homes line the streets. Note the plastic food totes, all bottled beverages come in glass or plastic & a deposit are required. Red terracotta blocks stacked in front of the building are typical building material throughout the island; did they run out of stones? Doubt it!

These are huge hot pink geraniums growing over a courtyard wall. Olive trees and Oleander bushes bloom alongside for color and privacy. A feast for the eyes!

The welcome center is the original 1-room school house. Inside was beautifully cool; it featured displays of agricultural products, maps, flora and fauna of the region and chairs for resting. Big round item is a terracotta pot; we saw these all over the island. At one point they may have held water (or wine), but now seem purely decorative.

OOPS In the visitor's courtyard are these two stone busts, one a Cypriot statesman and the other appeared military. (The writing was all in Greek) They sit at the edge of a large stone square and with the Greek Orthodox church on the other side, appear to anchor the village's gathering area.

The best tended garden ever seen, immaculate. The figure by the doorway was a wonderfully dressed scarecrow. The silvery patina on the weathered wood, the aged stone structure, the chicken coop on the left and not a weed in sight - what a delightful find!

Scott was intrigued by this aged-metal lock on a garage door. It seemed purely old world.

So appreciated the old structures gracing the streets with the dignity of dowager aunts. Imagine these large doors and windows thrown open to capture the cool sea breezes.

Geraniums, growing along side a whitewashed wall, are taller than Christine (well, that isn't too difficult). The large aloe growing in upper courtyard, the scroll-work metal fence and the utilitarian water pipe and faucet certainly caught Scott's eye.

Delightful entrance to a private courtyard just across the stree from the vegtable garden. A typical blue door, offset with hanging baskets, terracotta pots and the wooden tough all filled with blooming flowers was just too pretty to pass unappreciated. We wondered about the fenced roof and the up-side-down horseshoe on the lintel.

Oops, must have really like this photo!

Being up in the hills, the climate is ideal for wine growing. We noticed numerous homes with grape arbors, but this was the only 2-story affair. Again, we observed the walled, private courtyard that was entered thru double doors. Thick, trellised vines (see well-pruned example by the door) and plantings of olive trees offer shade, as well as, bountiful harvest.

With all that walking, we worked up an appetite. We heard of Imogen's Inn Taverna from a Scottish couple at The Last Castle (Christine's favorite meal). Imogen's features about 15 shaded outside tables and a large, delightfully dark and cool rustic inner room. Shared a Keo beer (our last of the trip) while enjoying the wait for our entrees. Lunch of stuffed cabbage leaves, spinach pie and eggplant/lamb mousaka was excellent. Yes, that is three entrees, but we were running out of time and wanted to try everything that looked good on the menu.

Just after lunch we walked down the street and turned the corner to this lovely little side street. Of course Christine had to see if there were anymore hidden treasures in this lovely little village.

There was, at the back of the building, a bonus of more carefully tended pots: cactus & succulents, geraniums, oleaners, herbs. Brilliant, simply brilliant...

Kathikas Village was exactly what I'd pictured a Cypriot village to resemble: small and closely set rock buildings, vine-covered courtyards, pots large and small overflowing with flowers in a riot of colors and blue doors/windows. Exploring this village on foot, we were rewarded with glimpses of daily life. Turning a corner on a back street we found an old woman (dressed all in black) sitting in the shade shelling peas. Our efforts brought well-tended gardens & lovely little homes, simple but pristine. Another vegtable garden was border with huge plants we'd never seen - artichokes! We heard two women (again all in black) chatting in a courtyard, who paused congenially to greet us as we passed. Olive trees, as well as, lime, lemon and oranges trees spilling their colorful bounty over the high walls were another bonus. It was a splendid 3 hours spent wandering about an absolutely delight-fill village.

One last photo, this of a curved doorway on a flatiron building. It's well weathered and peeling Mediterranean blue paint offers a glimpse, in a doorway, to Cyprus' turbulent and romantic past!

Love to All,

Scott and Christine

Cyprus, Paphos Mosaics

Scott is actually standing on mosaics! The mosaics are the floors of homes and government buildings in a huge archelogical site. Much of the outside area is roped off, but there a few places were it is still possible to "stand" in history.

A mosaic that sits magnificently among the site workings. Take note of the single standing column, the excavated walls, typical sea-side arid landscape and the beautiful azure blue Mediterranean Sea. This mosaic is perfectly round and is all geometrics. When we turned around there was a gorgeous green-on-green monocromatic mosaic. Many of the rooms and porticos at the central court are covered with mosaic floors with geometric motifs.

Perhaps Christine's favorite mosaic: "Theseus killing the Minotaur", hence the surrounding design is a labyrinth. This mosaic is part of an enormous villa of Theseus consisting of almost 100 large and small rooms, the building was the residence of the governor of Cyprus. The Roman commanders used to decorate the floors of their villas with mosaic, dating from the third to fifth century AD. The center scene: The hero Theseus is in combat with the Minotaur, half man/half bull. Ariadne, daughter of the King of Minos and admirer of Theseus look on from a safe height (smart woman!) Can you see the labyrinth? Paphos mosaics were made of small cubes of colorful marbles and stones, called tesserae, with glass paste added to widen the range of color.

House of Aion, named after the god seen in one of five mosaics, was discovered in 1983. This is part of 5 large and separate mosaics. It depicts a seated Apollo (with halo) resting upon his lyre and holding a branch. Unfortunately, large areas are missing from all 5 scenes, but now are protected by a structure and walkways for visitors.

Christine at the House of Theseus, possibly standing in the entrance to a home owned two thousand years ago by member of the ruling Roman class or a wealthy citizen. She readily admits she would probably have been a slave scrubbing the mosaics and sweeping the floors!

In this mosaic's center are three lovely women, surrounded by an wide deep burgandy and ivory border and a simple outer area. This is also in the outside area of House of Theseus. Again one can gaze out over Roman ruins and enjoy the beautiful Mediterranean Sea.

Long mosaic in The House of Dionysos features exotic animals often in hunting scenes

Pyramos and Thisbe Roman mosaic 3rd/4th century A.D. This mosaic depicts the story first made popular by Ovid and later by Shakespeare (Midsummer Night's Dream). Pyramos the handsome and Thisbe the beautiful communicated secretly through a crack in the wall. Later Thisbe is frightened by a lioness, which trampled and tore the veil she left when fleeing. Pyramos finds the the bloodstained veil, believes Thisbe dead and runs himself thru with his sword. Ahh, Greek tragedy!

The peacock is small (about 3 Feet square) but the centerpiece of a room at House of Dionysos. It was interesting to see natural subjects interspersed with mythology and geometrics.

This large Roman mosaic resembled a quilt. Christine found it fascinating as she recalls time and energy required to get a quilt exactly "perfect". This must have taken years to complete. Note the numbers at top of the photo: All of the mosaics were numbered and identified for the visitors - wish we had taken better notes.

In the House of Dionysos is this spendid mosaic, here we see two of three illustrations. Left: Dionysos is seated offering grapes to the nymph Akme, who is drinking wine from a bowl. (Not a bad idea!) Icarios made Dionysos welcome when he visited Athens and in return the god showed him how to cultivate wine. Icarios leads an ox-cart with wine-filled animal skins.

Five different depictions of the four Seasons with sad, but youthful face in the middle. The bearded man at lower left is winter's illustration. The pattern runs from Spring in upper left clockwise to Summer and Autumn at lower right. The other panels show rural scenes. Scott was fascinated by the 3-D effect of the narrow, but certainly eye-catching border.

Another intricate geometric with several different patterns in complimenting colors.

The Paphos Odeon is built entirely of limestone. It was severely damanged in an earthquake in the 7th century, but has now been partially restored. At the left are the ruins of the Agora, built in the second century and used as a marketplace & hospital, the hub of trade and commerce. Straight across are the scattered remains of the Acropolis.

Hi All,

The Mosaics of Paphos date from the days of Roman rule of Cyprus, these stunning mosaics were only discovered and excavated in 1962 and are some of the best preserved and most beautiful Roman mosaics discovered to date. Aside from their beauty (our photographs do NOT do them justice), as witness to history their claim is indisputable. These are the mosaics that St. Paul walked across after he "turned the other cheek. He had been public flogging by the Romans.

The houses are situated in the Paphos Archeological area and given names according to the main themes of their mosaic scenes. (Dionysus, Orpheus, Aion and Theseus) Excavations have revealed the spectacular 3rd & 5th centrury mosaics but many sites are still being unearthed.

The most intact area, The House of Dionysos has superb examples scenes from Greek mythology and was accidentlly discovered by a farmer ploughing his field! 5,985 square feet (556 square meters) of floor space 14 rooms are covered with gorgeous mosaics. This area is completed enclosed and protected from the elements, which meant we were also protected from the sun. We lingered and discussed, calling each other to point out a special border or scene, while 6ft up on walkways covering the original stone foundations. This was a roman private residence of over 40 rooms.

The Odeon Theatre is still used as it was in ancient times for outdoor concerts, plays and games. Also at the site are an early Christian basilica and a retired lighthouse. The basilica was built in the 5th century, but destroyed during the 7th century Arab raids. The entire town of Paphos is included in the official UNESCO list of cultural and natural treasure of world heritage.

The most impressive and reflective time of our holiday was the three hours we spent exploring this marvelous area. Hope you have enjoyed the read (always knew my Humanities major at university would be of value).

Love to you all,

Christine and Scott