Khirokitia: Neolithic Houses and Early Village Life in Cyprus

Khirokitia: Neolithic Houses and Early Village Life in Cyprus Khirokitia, also spelled Choirokoitia, is a Neolithic village on a hillside above the Maroni River in southern Cyprus, about six kilometres from the coast between Limassol and Larnaca. Founded around 7000 BC, it was a closely packed settlement of round stone houses, enclosed by a massive […]

Paphos Archaeological Park: Roman Mosaics and Civic Life in Cyprus

Paphos Archaeological Park: Roman Mosaics and Civic Life in Cyprus Paphos Archaeological Park, by the harbour of Kato Paphos on the west coast of Cyprus, covers most of the ancient city of Nea Paphos, the capital of Cyprus under the Ptolemaic kings of Egypt and then under Rome. Its fame rests on the mosaic floors […]

Salamis, Cyprus: Harbour City, Antiquity and the Famagusta Coast

Salamis, Cyprus: Harbour City, Antiquity and the Famagusta Coast Salamis, on the east coast of Cyprus a few kilometres north of Famagusta, was for well over a thousand years one of the great cities of the island: a harbour city-kingdom in the Iron Age and Classical period, a wealthy Roman town, and in late antiquity, […]

Troodos Painted Churches: Byzantine Frescoes and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus

Troodos Painted Churches: Byzantine Frescoes and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus The Troodos painted churches are a group of small Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches and monasteries in the mountains of central Cyprus, whose interiors are covered in wall paintings from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries. Ten of them were inscribed by UNESCO as the Painted […]

Eastern Mediterranean Islands Itinerary: Santorini, Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus in 21 Days

Eastern Mediterranean Islands Itinerary: Santorini, Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus in 21 Days Santorini, Crete, Rhodes and Cyprus are four of the great eastern Mediterranean islands, and taken in that order they tell a single long story: a Bronze Age port buried by a volcano, the palaces of Minoan Crete, a medieval fortress city of crusading […]

Pillars of Hercules: History, Location, and Myth at the Strait of Gibraltar

The Pillars of Hercules is the ancient name referring to the two promontories at the eastern entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow opening 14 kilometres wide between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean separating the continents of Africa and Europe.

Bronze age civilisations of the Eastern Mediterranean Islands

Bronze age civilisations of the Eastern Mediterranean Islands As you explore these islands and learn about the cradle of Western civilisation, ancient cultures and history will come to life. Visit magical Santorini, which contains a remnant of an ancient civilisation disrupted by volcanic action. Or Crete, where you can explore the home of the Minoan […]