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 Kyperoúnta it runs 210 km to Kyperoúnta; allow about 4 h 46 of riding. It goes by way of Church of Archangelos Michael, Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village and back through Church of Archangelos Michael. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 800 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 is where the day begins. 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.
Church of Archangelos Michael comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village. 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.
back through Church of Archangelos Michael, late in the day. Next is Church of Stavros.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Church of Stavros write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Church of Stavros. That is the ride.
Church of Stavros → Church of Archangelos Michael is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Archangelos Michael → Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village → back through Church of Archangelos Michael is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Church of Archangelos Michael → Church of Stavros is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.