A Bit of Everything: Cyprus (1)
It was the third Christmas I spent in the UK. For the previous two holidays I chose to stay in the country mainly because I didn’t want to spend too much as a student the first year, and the second I was waiting for my Graduate Visa (the application will be withdrawn automatically if I left the country before I received a decision). However, for 2023 I decided I’d go somewhere abroad.
One major reason was that I was tired of staying in the cold and wet Britain. I used to think that I loved the north, that it was atmospheric and romantic to look at the beautiful winter view from the window. I probably got the impression from Hollywood movies portraying Nordic countries in the 2000s, and truth is that there’s nothing romantic about spending precious holiday in wuthering heights, with no shop opening and eating charcuterie in overly-expensive hotel room (that was basically what happened to me in Carlisle in January 2023).
As I scrolled through all the locations, a blog post caught my attention. It was a young woman who shared her seven days in Cyprus. She concluded that it was a country for those who wanted “a bit of everything: culture, history, and beautiful nature”. This was the keyword that pushed me to book a ticket to Cyprus.
I didn’t know much about Cyprus before I started planning, only that it as a small island in the Mediterranean sea, and that there are conflicts between the Turks and the Greeks. Yet, the more info I gathered, the more I looked forward to it: It was a place of ancient history, and the great location made the tourism business successful. I was also very lucky to choose the Greeks region (south) since it was still considered part of the EU, so I didn’t need to apply any visa. I was also relieved to learn that the electricity voltage and the driving directions are the same as the UK, which were signs of a connection to the British history, but I only learned more about the past when I arrived.
This post will talk about the archaeological sites I visited in Paphos, which was the first city I stayed during the course of my trip.
- Kato Paphos Archaeological Park, 24 Dec 2023
Paphos, or Pafos, was the first of the two cities I stayed in Cyprus. My hotel was 15 minutes away from the archaeological site, which is at the harbour, also the city centre. A stroll down the coast, with tides splashing and salty winds blowing through the hair, I arrived at the front of the park.
I had never visited any archaeological site before coming to Cyprus. In my imagination, I pictured what I read from Agatha Christie’s novels and what I heard from my colleagues at the MAA: Hot and dry summer, with fierce winds stirring the sand in a large barren land; archaeologists lying on their bellies while using small brushes to clean the dirt on a clay pot or a dinosaur bone. Among the wild imaginations, I probably only got the large land part slightly correct: What I saw after passing the ticket office was a vast sand-rocky land.
I didn’t get the part of the land being barren right, as the typical Mediterranean plantation thrived even in the December winter. I got myself a French map. Strangely, there was no English map available. The site was categorised a UNESCO heritage, and there was a free audio guide on an exclusive app. What made me really happy was that there was free public wifi, which was something critical for using the app.
My first stop was House of Aion. I had heard about all the praises for the beautiful mosaic at House of Dionysus, but the truth was it was not the only place where mosaic decoration as available.
The display panel indicated that this was a triclinium, of which I didn’t know the meaning until I looked it up when I came back home. It means dining room. It was a suggestion from the excavators, who made the judgment from the motifs of the mosaic, although many specialists had different opinions. The display panel was bilingual, of Greek and English; the content described every detail possible — maybe a bit too detailed — and then I realised that the panel was for visually impaired visitors.
Realising this dawned on me that basically the whole archaeological park did not have too much explanation or guide. Surely, there was an app as I mentioned, but if I already struggled to keep concentrated on audio guide at an indoor museum, I would have so much harder time doing the same in an outdoor space. The wifi was fine at the entrance, but it didn’t cover the whole site appearantly.
Many times I have attempted to learn something about archaeology, but I really don’t know how and where to begin. It is not that I can’t read or understand, but that the technicality of archaeology often varies in countries. I didn’t realise this, since at school I learned about the stone age and bronze age in Taiwan, and excavation finds. However, I was told once that the beginning and end of the stone age of a certain region may be completely different from another. That does not help when I was presented a random foreign object and was told it dated back pre-bronze age; I wouldn’t know anything about what they meant because I don’t necessarily have the context in world history. I also find it difficult to recognise any characteristic among archaeological items, especially stones, glassware, and sherds. I honestly think they all look the same. I feel very much embarrassed, one reason being that I work at the MAA, and the other being that some of my friends, despite not having a degree, easily pick up facts of archaeology when visiting a similar museum to the MAA.
I’m not sure how many people feel the same way as I do. I also don’t think those who visited the archaeological park in Paphos were all trained in archaeology, and there had to be someone who wanted to learn. It would’ve been more helpful if there was a display panel that provided the context: How this site was discovered, what made it unique to Cyprus, what are some highlights that set the houses apart from other places of the same era, etc.. I could read all the visual descriptions as I wanted, but still I didn’t know what House of Aion stood for. My questions include: Was it common to have tiny space? Was the owner rich? Who lived here? Was it common to have mosaic indoor? Who named it House of Aion?
Perhaps I was too much used to museums in the UK, where the design of explanation panels was often under scrutiny by the visitors. I also have to remind myself that the fact I work in the museum sector made me more hash on visitor experience, sometimes unnecessarily harsh. This is part of the reason I visit museums in a foreign country during holiday — to poke my head out of the echo chamber and actually listen to others.
I think the panels could be much improved, but I also think it is not the most urgent and must-do for the admins. I have seen many visitors stop and scan the QR codes (each attraction has its own code that connects to the UNESCO app). They listened the whole introduction before proceeding stepping inside or climbing up to experience it. It has obviously worked for them and they enjoyed the experience. In terms of learning archaeology, it just didn’t quite work for me.
That didn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy or wasn’t amazed by what I saw. After House of Aion, I went by House of Theseus, which nowadays was left in open-air.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that there was no machine or computer for designing and mass producing. The beautiful patterns may be possible to achieve faster and more easily nowadays, but what I was looking at was almost 2000 years ago. To put myself in the context, I often think about how often I have to replace a piece of furniture. The life cycle of modern objects seems even more ephemeral compared to those stones laid in the field.
I enjoyed my visit to the House of Dionysus. Though I didn’t know who made the artistic decision to choose these motifs for laying the mosaic, being a long-term fan of Greek and Roman mythology at least equipped me the knowledge to understand some of the context.
The site was massive. I was very glad that I had my map as I was sure I would miss an important site without it. Most people left the site after seeing the Roman Odeon or even the House of Dionysus, but I was determined to see everything. According to the map, I should be able to see №18–22, which are the two baths, a Gothic church, the Basilica of Chrysopolitissa, and St Paul’s pillar. I asked the staff in the ticket office, and it turned out that those attractions were actually outside of the site. This is a trivia but if anyone is interested, these five attractions are free to visit.
I was able to find those attractions. I wouldn’t recommend them, though, as the maintenance was obviously not kept at the same level as the ones in the site. Regretably, the Basilica of Chrysopolitissa was having general construction work and entry was not available. This detour was an interesting experience as I saw the more normal side of the Cypriot neighbourhood.
As I inserted the photos of the Roman Odeon above, I realised that I had been wrong till this moment. Before, I thought it was called the amphitheatre, but it was actually an odeon, and it was not the chain movie theatre in the UK. This new discovery piqued my interest: What is the difference between an odeon and an amphitheatre? It seems that there is no neutral answer and archaeologists are still debating.
2. Tombs of the Kings (Kato Paphos), 27 Dec 2023
I had to confess, that I though Nea Paphos and Tombs of Kings were the same site before I arrived. I was clearly wrong, but that was not the only thing I was wrong about. As usual, names can misleading: There was no king. Fortunately, the site was a burial place.
When I was a kid, my second favourite movie was The Mummy series, and the Chinese translation for necropolis was even more misleading. In a society that fears and spite death, the name sounds even more morbid: One like me pictured a place full of ghosts that yell “wooooo” and “yeeee”. I do understand that these are very far away from what necropolis is.
Intead of kings, most buried were aristocrats and high-ranked officers. In my opinion, Nea Paphos (above) was a site of mixed Greek and Roman legacies, as the mosaic patterns indicated. Tombs of the Kings, or Kato Paphos, was a mixture of Greek and Eyptian culture, as the name “necropolis” suggested. Realising this again amazed me of how rich Cypriot history was.
If I was complaining how unhelpful the map of Nea Paphos was, I hadn’t seen the one for Kato Paphos. There was less information. Each tomb was only in numerical order, and if anyone was interested in learning the background, QR codes were again available but there was no public wifi.
If I really have to pick a favoured one among these two, I would say the Tombs of the Kings, as the burial sites were impressive even for a total amateur. In terms of visiting experience, I’d say Nea Paphos was doing better.
I don’t intend to sing praises of museum practices and ideals in the UK, but I think archaeological sites like these two could really use a little help for engagement and learning.
Finally, a little video of a surprise (a good one) — Agia Solomoni Catacomb, on my way back from Tombs of the Kings.
