CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Geroskipou it runs 312 km to Geroskipou; allow about 6 h 46 of riding. It goes by way of Paphos, Church of Archangelos Michael, Church of Timios Stavros and Church of Stavros. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
According to the Greeks, Aphrodite rose from the sea foam off the coast of Cyprus, and the place where she came ashore was near Paphos. The rock of Petra tou Romiou, a sea stack a few kilometres east of Kouklia, is the traditional spot, and the sanctuary on the hill above, at Palaepaphos, was one of the most important shrines of the ancient world. People came on pilgrimage from across the Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to late antiquity, and the cult went back to a Near Eastern fertility goddess long before the Greeks arrived, with the goddess worshipped in the form of a cone-shaped black stone.
Read the complete Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is where the day begins. Next is Paphos.
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.
Read the complete Paphos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Paphos comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of Archangelos Michael.
From the outside, the church of the Archangel Michael at Pedoulas looks like a barn, with a steep wooden roof covered in flat tiles coming almost to the ground. Inside, its walls are covered with frescoes painted in 1474 by a local artist named Minas, with bright colours and lively scenes from the life of Christ and the saints, and the archangel himself presiding over the door. It is one of the painted churches in the Troodos region listed by UNESCO, a group of small Byzantine churches and monasteries whose humble exteriors hide some of the richest interiors in the Eastern Christian world.
Read the complete Church of Archangelos Michael write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 98 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of Archangelos Michael. Next is Church of Timios Stavros.
The painted churches of the Troodos mountains look plain from outside. Squat stone boxes with steep timber roofs, built that way to shed the snow, they hide inside some of the finest Byzantine frescoes in the Mediterranean, and nine of them were listed by UNESCO in 1985, with a tenth added later. The Church of Timios Stavros, the Holy Cross, at Pelendri, is one of the group, with frescoes from the fourteenth century that show scenes of the life of Christ, in the dark blues and ochres of the period, and an interior lit by only a little daylight so that the figures seem to glow.
Read the complete Church of Timios Stavros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Timios Stavros, about halfway. Next is Church of Stavros.
High in the Troodos mountains of Cyprus, in a quiet valley below the village of Platanistasa, stands a small church with a steep, pitched timber roof that comes almost to the ground, making it look more like a barn than a place of worship. This is Stavros tou Agiasmati, the Church of the Holy Cross, and inside it holds some of the finest late Byzantine frescoes on the island, painted in 1494 by Philip Goul, an artist whose name is recorded in a dedicatory inscription. The scenes from the life of Christ and the legend of the True Cross, rich in colour and detail, cover every wall. The church is one of ten painted churches in the Troodos region listed by UNESCO.
Read the complete Church of Stavros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Church of Stavros sits at 120 km, about halfway. Next is back through Church of Timios Stavros.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Timios Stavros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of Timios Stavros comes up about 184 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Church of Archangelos Michael.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Archangelos Michael write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 215 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Church of Archangelos Michael. Next is back through Paphos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Paphos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Paphos, late in the day. Next is Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 312 km.
Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village → Paphos is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Paphos → Church of Archangelos Michael is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Archangelos Michael → Church of Timios Stavros is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Timios Stavros → Church of Stavros is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Stavros → back through Church of Timios Stavros is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Timios Stavros → back through Church of Archangelos Michael is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Archangelos Michael → back through Paphos is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Paphos → Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.