Paphos, ancient city on the southwest coast of Cyprus
(34°42' N, 32°3s' E), situated on a low hill above the coastal
plain, fewer than 2 km (about 1 mi.) from the shore. The
original settlement was also called Paphos, but since the end
of the fourth century BCE has been called Old Paphos (Gk.,
Palaipaphos; Lat., Palaepaphus), to avoid confusion with
the recently founded harbor town of New Paphos (Nea Paphos), some 19 km (12 mi.) along the coast to the northwest.
The ancient name of the city was lost during the Middle
Ages. In the sixteenth century, the Swiss traveler Ludwig
Tschudi (1519) and the Venetian official Francesco Attar
(1540) discovered that the ruins outside the village of
Kouklia marked the site of the renowned Sanctuary of the
Paphian Aphrodite. The first excavations at Palaipaphos-Kouklia were carried out in 1888 by an expedition from the
Cyprus Exploration Fund. After an interval of more than
seventy years, the British Kouklia Expedition (1950-1955)
initiated a systematic archaeological investigation of the city
and the sanctuary. Since 1966, regular excavations have
been conducted under the auspices of the German Archaeological Institute and the University of Zurich.
Paphos represents the only capital of the ancient kingdoms of Cyprus whose history dates to the early third millennium BCE . The site was inhabited in the Chalcolithic period (c. 2800 BCE) . Greek immigrants began to appear in the
extensive Late Bronze Age settlement at Paphos (late twelfth
or early eleventh century BCE) . The city remained the capital
of the Kingdom of Paphos from the Iron Age until the conquest of Cyprus by the Ptolemies, in 294 BCE , who abolished
the island's local monarchies. The city of Palaipaphos, however, continued to function as a noted place of worship
throughout antiquity.
A local fertility cult is attested at Paphos as early as the
third millennium. It seems that the Greek immigrants
transformed it into the worship of the Paphian Aphrodite, whose
cult later also adapted elements of the Syrian Astarte. The
shrine at Paphos, situated close to the spot on the coast
where the "foam-born" goddess was believed to have risen
from the sea, gradually became one of the most famous
sanctuaries of Aphrodite in the Greek and Roman world.
The sanctuary therefore formed the chief architectural feature of Paphos. The first monumental sanctuary buildings
date to about 1200 BCE . Basically, they represent a type of
Near Eastern court sanctuary, combining a small, covered
hall with a large, open temenos (a sacred precinct), originally filled with altars and votive gifts. The hall probably
housed the idol of the goddess in the shape of a conical
stone, a symbol of fertility. The aniconic worship of Aphrodite at Paphos throughout the sanctuary's history was a
legacy of the original autochthonous cult.
In the large Late Bronze Age city of Paphos, workshops
produced refined pottery, jewelery, and ivory objects that
exhibit a characteristic fusion of Cypriot, Aegean, and Levantine traditions. Yet, probably the most flourishing phases
in the history of the city were the Archaic and Classical periods, as shown by the large number of tombs of the wealthy
and by an architectural heritage. In the sanctuary itself, a
thorough Roman remodeling destroyed the LB buildings,
but the cult's continuity is amply attested by more than four
thousand fragments of Geometric, Archaic, and Classical
terra-cotta votives. An imposing Late Archaic or Early Classical ashlar building most likely served as a royal residence.
It is modeled on Achaemenid prototypes and exhibits a certain monumental elegance. A large Late Classical peristyle
mansion, discovered a few years ago, may have served a
similar purpose in the fourth century BCE . Another important feature of the Classical period is the vast chamber tomb
Spilaion lis Ragainas, the burial place of two fourth-century
kings of Paphos.
The city of Paphos was defended by a circuit of walls built
in the Early Archaic period and maintained until about 300
BCE . The northeast gate, which forms a sector of these fortifications, represents an important and, in some respects,
unique monument of military architecture. Elaborate siege
and countersiege works excavated on the site allow a detailed
reconstruction of the siege of Paphos by a Persian army during the Ionian Revolt in 498 BCE. In order to amass the materials to construct a vast siege ramp, the attackers destroyed
a sanctuary outside the walls. This debris contained several
hundred fragments of sculptures and votive monuments
that include some of the finest Archaic Cypriot statues
known. These finds testify to a considerable local school of
sculptors whose work combines Egyptian trends with Greek
and Phoenician influences; they also provide a key date for
the art history of ancient Cyprus. The potter's craft also
lived on in the Iron Age, as shown by a large number of
remarkable vessels decorated in the rather severe Paphian
style that relies mainly on austere geometric patterns.
At the beginning of the third century BCE , when a considerable part of the population was transferred to the harbor
city of Nea Paphos, the importance of the old city of Paphos
declined, but it did retain its fame as an important religious
center in the Hellenistic and later the Roman world. The
sanctuary was rebuilt in about 100 CE, possibly after a destruction caused by the earthquake of 76/77 CE. This Roman
sanctuary, which incorporated part of the LB buildings, was
not in the classical Greco-Roman design. The building retained tire basic Oriental character of an open-court sanctuary, reminiscent of the cult's Near Eastern antecedents.
The shrine with the longest cult tradition on Cyprus did
not survive the final outlawing of all pagan religions by Emperor Theodosius I (391). Yet, several centuries later, at the
beginning of the twelfth century, Palaipaphos (then named
Couvoucle) regained some of its former importance. The
royal manor house was erected adjacent to the sanctuary
site, incorporating a thirteenth-century hall that is one of the
finest surviving monuments of Gothic secular architecture
on Cyprus. The manor served as a center of cane sugar
production. On the coastal plain below it, a large and fairly
well-preserved cane-sugar refinery was discovered and excavated. Erected in the late thirteenth century, it represents
a so-far unique example of a medieval industrial plant; it
remained in use until the end of the sixteenth century