Cyprus

🇨🇾 Cyprus

Nicosia

Nicosia is the last divided capital city in the world — the UN-administered Green Line runs through the city centre, separating the Republic of Cyprus (EU member) from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognised only by Turkey) since 1974 when Turkey invaded following a Greek-backed coup. The division is visible physically: the Ledra Street pedestrian crossing where Republic of Cyprus passport holders and tourists cross into the north is one of the most surreal borders in the world, a matter of a few hundred metres but representing a geopolitical reality so frozen that the old Nicosia Airport (abandoned in 1974) still has luggage on the carousels. The entire old city is encircled by the remarkably intact 16th-century Venetian walls (11 bastions built 1567–1570 and so sophisticated they were never breached by the Ottomans — it was the heat and disease that defeated the defenders). Nicosia rewards slow exploration: the Cyprus Museum with the Bronze Age Ayia Irini terracotta figurine collection (2,000 votive figures in one room), the Büyük Han (Great Inn, 1572) on the northern side, the Archbishop's Palace with its enormous Makarios III effigy, and the street food of Laiki Geitonia (traditional craftsmen's quarter) with halloumi sandwiches, loukoumades and commandaria wine (the world's oldest documented wine, produced in Cyprus since 800 BCE).

🇨🇾 Cyprus

Paphos

Paphos is a city of 70,000 on the southwest coast of Cyprus and one of the most mythologically and archaeologically significant places in the Mediterranean — the birthplace of Aphrodite (according to Greek mythology, she rose from the sea foam at the Petra tou Romiou rock, 15 km east of the city), the location of an extraordinary UNESCO archaeological park with 4th-century CE Roman floor mosaics (the finest in the Eastern Mediterranean), and the first port of call for the Apostle Paul on his first missionary journey to Europe (Acts 13) where he converted the Roman Governor Sergius Paulus in 46 CE, making Cyprus the first country to be ruled by a Christian governor. The UNESCO Paphos Archaeological Park holds four exceptional Roman villa complexes — the House of Dionysus, the House of Theseus, the House of Aion and the House of Orpheus — each with floor mosaics of mythological scenes (the rape of Ganymede, the triumph of Dionysus, Theseus killing the Minotaur) preserved in extraordinary condition. The Paphos Fort at the harbour (originally Lusignan, rebuilt by Ottomans in 1592), the Tombs of the Kings (4th century BCE necropolis carved from the rock, where Macedonian-style underground tombs have Doric columns carved directly into the limestone) and the Byzantine castle of Saranda Kolones (destroyed by earthquake 1222) form additional layers of 2,700 years of continuous habitation. Paphos was designated European Capital of Culture in 2017, and its coastal position (long sandy beaches at Coral Bay, Latchi and the Akamas Peninsula nature reserve) make it the most complete leisure-and-culture destination in Cyprus.