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.
337 km from Paphos to Paphos, about 6 h 40 of riding. The stops in between: Church of Archangelos Michael, Choirokoitia 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.
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 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 76 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 170 km into the recorded legs you reach Choirokoitia. 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 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 at Paphos. That is the ride.
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 → Choirokoitia is 94 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Choirokoitia → back through Church of Archangelos Michael is 93 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Church of Archangelos Michael → Paphos is 75 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.