The ride that brings you here starts in Paphos but belongs, for a while, to Aphrodite. Kouklia, a village on the southwest coast of Cyprus, sits on the site of Palaepaphos, the old Paphos, where the goddess of love was worshipped for well over a thousand years before the Romans arrived. Ancient writers placed her birth in the sea off this coast, and a rock offshore near here is still called Aphrodite's Rock. The sanctuary was a pilgrimage centre across the Mediterranean, and pilgrims travelled from Greece, Egypt and Phoenicia to reach it.
The modern Paphos is a different animal, a lively harbour town with the Roman mosaics of the Kato Paphos archaeological park, tourist bars, and a tomb district known as the Tombs of the Kings. It is the sensible base because it has everything: fuel, food, hotels, rental shops. Geroskipou and Chlorakas are smaller towns just along the coast where the pace is quieter and the bakeries are good. Come to Paphos for the practical side and to see the mosaic floors, then leave in the morning.
The road to Kouklia is the old coastal route towards Limassol, with fields of bananas and greenhouses squeezed against the sea on one side and dry hills on the other. The surface is generally good, the corners are open, and the real hazards are tour buses, rental cars driven by people who are still working out which side of the road to use, and the fact that traffic keeps left, a leftover of British rule. In summer the heat is fierce by noon, and the light is hard, so early or late rides make more sense. Spring is lovely, with wildflowers on the verges and green slopes.
At Kouklia the medieval manor house stands over the ruins, a Lusignan-era building later used as a sugar estate, and a small museum holds finds from the sanctuary. The stone known as the Cone of Aphrodite, a conical black block, is associated with the cult, and that is the most interesting thing you can look at. From here the island opens eastward, towards Choirokoitia and the Neolithic village on the hill, which is one of the oldest settlement sites in the Mediterranean.