Aphrodite was born from the sea foam off this coast, according to the Greeks, and the oldest part of her story is a few kilometres east of Paphos, at a sea stack called Petra tou Romiou and at the sanctuary of Palaepaphos in the village of Kouklia. But the city of Nea Paphos, the new Paphos, which grew by the harbour at Kato Paphos, was where the island's rulers lived. Founded at the end of the fourth century BC, it became the capital of Cyprus under the Ptolemies and then the Romans, and it stayed that way until the fourth century AD. UNESCO listed Paphos in 1980 as a site of remarkable archaeological remains.
The archaeological park by the harbour holds the best of it: Roman villas with floors covered in mosaics of dazzling colour and quality, showing scenes from Greek myth, Dionysus and his followers, Theseus and the Minotaur, Aion and Apollo, all in tiny cubes of stone laid in the third and fourth centuries AD. The Odeon, a small Roman theatre, is still used for concerts. A little further inland, the Tombs of the Kings, carved into the rock, are not royal at all, but belonged to high officials, and are impressive. Paphos Castle, a small fort at the harbour mouth, was rebuilt by the Ottomans in the sixteenth century, and the ruined fortress of Saranta Kolones, forty columns, is a relic of the crusader age.
Paphos is a town of about thirty-six thousand people with fuel, food and an international airport, popular with tourists, so the harbour area can feel busy. Remember that Cyprus drives on the left, a legacy of British rule. The riding is lovely. The coast road runs between citrus groves and banana plantations, and inland the road climbs into the Troodos mountains, up to Mount Olympus at 1,952 metres, through pine forest, with villages, monasteries and cool air. Roads are well surfaced but twisty, and hairpins demand care.
Summers are hot, often above thirty-five degrees, so ride in spring, from March to May, when wildflowers cover the hills, or in autumn. Winter can be wet, and snow falls on the Troodos.
Try halloumi grilled, souvlaki and a glass of commandaria, the sweet dessert wine that Cyprus has made for centuries.