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.
161 km from Paphos to Paphos, about 3 h 25 of riding. It goes by way of Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village, Church of Archangelos Michael 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. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
The so-called Tombs of the Kings lie on the sea edge of Paphos, in the western corner of Cyprus, and the name is a bit of romance, because nobody royal was ever proven to be buried here. In fact the rock-cut tombs date to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, roughly the fourth century BC onward, and they were used by the high officials and wealthy citizens of Nea Paphos, the old capital of the island under the Ptolemies. The tombs are carved into the soft limestone, some with Doric columns around a central open court, so that you walk down a flight of steps into what looks like a sunken Greek house with a burial chamber on each side.
Read the complete Kato Paphos necropolis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kato Paphos necropolis 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 21 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 80 km into the recorded legs you reach Church of Archangelos Michael. 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 Kato Paphos necropolis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kato Paphos necropolis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Kato Paphos necropolis. That is the ride.
Kato Paphos necropolis → Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village → Church of Archangelos Michael is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Church of Archangelos Michael → back through Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village is 59 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Aphrodite's Sanctuary at Kouklia village → Kato Paphos necropolis is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.