Cyprus
12-22 July 2010
A few photos from our 10 days in Cyprus. As much of the time was
spent visiting familiar places, there aren't photos of those.
This strange construction shelters part of the neolithic settlement of
Kalavasos-Tenta. The site can be seen from the Limassol-Nicosia
motorway, but this was our first visit.
The site dates from around the end of the seventh millennium BC
The village was initially excavated in 1947, with further work from
1976.
The settlement is surrounded by walls and consists of a compound of
buildings with simple circular or double circular ground plans built
with sun-dried mudbrick or stone or a combination of both. The roof was
flat and was made of a wooden frame consisting of branches, reeds, and
earth.
From the covered site, looking across a field to another part of Tenta,
which we didn't visit this time.
A few kilometres up the road is another neolithic site, Khirokitia,
which was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1998. These are
reconstructions using authentic materials of two of the houses.
The village lines the steep slopes of this hill
There is an amazing number of densely packed houses, abandoned for
unknown reasons around 6000BC.
This early culture was clearly a well developed society and was engaged
in farming, hunting and herding
Further excavation work is ongoing here
Looking down on the reconstructed houses.
On a different pace, we hired a boat for a short ride from Paphos
harbour
Looking back to Paphos harbour
Some of the hotels at Paphos
We had a fun few hours at the waterpark in Paphos - we didn't think to
take any action photos, but grabbed a couple of quick shots as we left.
The lazy river ride.
Ben getting to grips with the swimming pool at
villa Kambos.
Debbie and Mark with Ben and Thomas in the pool.
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