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 Kakopetriá it runs 288 km to Kakopetriá; allow about 4 h 55 of riding. On the way it passes Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village, Choirokoitia and back through Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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.
Church of Archangelos Michael is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Choirokoitia.
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.
about 143 km into the recorded legs you reach Choirokoitia. Next is back through 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.
back through Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village, late in the day. Next is 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.
Back at Church of Archangelos Michael. That is the ride.
Church of Archangelos Michael → Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village → Choirokoitia is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Choirokoitia → back through Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village → Church of Archangelos Michael is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.