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.
313 km from Kofínou to Kofínou, about 6 h 06 of riding. On the way it passes Painted Churches in the Troodos Region, Church of Ayios Nikolaos, Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village and back through Church of Ayios Nikolaos. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Long before the Greeks, the Phoenicians or the Romans arrived in Cyprus, people lived on a hillside above the Maroni river in the southern part of the island, in round stone houses with flat roofs, packed close together inside a defensive wall. Choirokoitia is a Neolithic settlement dating back to around the seventh millennium BC, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the eastern Mediterranean. The inhabitants farmed, herded animals and buried their dead under the floors of their houses. Several of the round houses have been reconstructed near the entrance, giving a vivid sense of how they lived. The site received UNESCO recognition in 1998.
Read the complete Choirokoitia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Choirokoitia is where the day begins. Next is Painted Churches in the Troodos Region.
From the outside they look like barns: low stone buildings with steep pitched roofs of flat tiles, sometimes covered by a second wooden roof to keep off the snow. Inside, every surface glows with Byzantine and post-Byzantine frescoes. The painted churches of the Troodos mountains in Cyprus, nine of them inscribed in 1985 and a tenth added in 2001, form one of the richest collections of Byzantine painting anywhere.
Read the complete Painted Churches in the Troodos Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Painted Churches in the Troodos Region comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Church of Ayios Nikolaos.
Above the village of Kakopetria, on the slopes of the Troodos mountains in the middle of Cyprus, the Church of Ayios Nikolaos stands under a roof of its own. The name Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis means Saint Nicholas of the Roof, and the explanation is simple: the little Byzantine church was so precious, and the Troodos winters so wet, that a second, steeply pitched timber roof with tiles was built over the original to protect it. The church dates from around the eleventh century, and inside its walls are covered in frescoes from several different periods, from the Byzantine to the later Middle Ages.
Read the complete Church of Ayios Nikolaos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 81 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of Ayios Nikolaos. Next is Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village.
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, about halfway. Next is back through Church of Ayios Nikolaos.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Ayios Nikolaos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Church of Ayios Nikolaos sits at 158 km, about halfway. Next is back through Painted Churches in the Troodos Region.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Painted Churches in the Troodos Region write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Painted Churches in the Troodos Region comes up about 269 km into the recorded legs. Next is Choirokoitia.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Choirokoitia write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Choirokoitia closes the day.
Choirokoitia → Painted Churches in the Troodos Region is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Painted Churches in the Troodos Region → Church of Ayios Nikolaos is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Ayios Nikolaos → Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village → back through Church of Ayios Nikolaos is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Ayios Nikolaos → back through Painted Churches in the Troodos Region is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Painted Churches in the Troodos Region → Choirokoitia is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.