Temple of Aphrodite

The Temple of Aphrodite is one of the most important cultural attractions of Cyprus, located within the archaeological site of Palaipafos and east of Paphos in the village of the homonymous province, Kouklia.

One of the most prized pilgrimage centers of the ancient Greek world and one of the oldest ruins of the 12th century BC, the temple of Aphrodite is located alongside the central road of Limassol Paphos. The time of glory of the temple lasted until the end of the 4th century AD, after repeated earthquakes and the decree of Emperor Theodosius, which closed all idolatrous temples. The worship of the goddess lost its glory with the rise of Christianity, and so slowly began the abandonment of her altars. Excavations around the sanctuary continue until today, while the first findings are housed and exhibited for the public at the Archaeological Museum of Palaipaphos.

The predominant versions regarding the temple’s establishment are two. Famous already from the times of Homer, the temple of Aphrodite was built by Agapinoras, who, returning from Troy, was brought by the sea to the shores of Cyprus. Mythology, on the other hand, attributes the foundation of the temple to King Kinyras, Adonis’ father. The goddess was worshiped as follows, with a priest ordaining the ceremonies, and acctually the mythical king Kinyras was mentioned as the first priest of the temple. Historically, the sanctuary is said to have passed into the hands of colonists from the Aegean who reformed a local worship and gave it the characteristics of the worshipping of goddess Aphrodite. The Ptolemies and the Romans, in order to give special glory to the sanctuary, tried to introduce the worship of the emperors and other gods, while every year, musical, theatrical, poetic and athletic competitions were held in honor of the goddess of love.

Being one of the most important religious centers of antiquity, the Temple of Aphrodite – built according to the standards of the temples in the Eastern Mediterranean, – was a tripartite sanctuary with a conical altar, which had no walls and no roof, but instead a covered construction supported by pillars. In the central part of it was a large enclosure, which was supplemented by numerous tributes, a small built sanctuary and the main altar which was located somewhere outside the temple and only received offerings of incense, perfume, fire and no animal sacrifices. There was also a smaller sanctuary, probably dedicated to Aphrodite – Astarte and to god Melkart, which was located near the northeast entrance of the Kouklia. The worship of the goddess at Palaipaphos was aniconistic, so the goddess’ representations, as it turned out, were not anthropomorphic. Her symbol was a cone stone, which was found, and is now exhibited at the Museum of the region, while part of the rituals was also the sacred prostitution, that is, the prostitution of women before their marriage. Unfortunately, little remains of such a great temple are saved today, since in the course of time the idolatrous sanctuary was transformed into a plantation and sugar refinery of royal families of the Middle Ages. Of those facilities, only a few parts are preserved, as well as the foundations of a Medieval aqueduct.

The remains of the Temple of Aphrodite are two clusters of hewed buildings, the Sanctuary I of the Late Bronze Age in the south, the first monumental site of Aphrodite’s worship, and the Roman Sanctuary II in the north, built at the end of the 1st or early 2nd century.

Coming from Kouklia, visitors will first see to their left the Sanctuary II, which consisted to the north and the south of two elongated halls and an east wing with rectangular rooms, creating a large open-air courtyard. Few portions of the mosaic floor of the northern gallery of the particular wing are now distinct, while adjacent to it is a building with a floor covered with limestone slabs, which probably served as an alternative entrance for the faithful.

The Romans, who thought their genus came from Aphrodite, transformed the old sanctuary of Palaipaphos into a worship center and an asylum. The enclosure was preserved as it were with the conical stone (vetilos) as a symbol of the goddess' power in its place, but other annexes were built to house the pilgrims coming from all over the world. Although it is very difficult to reconstruct by modern means the details of the Roman architecture of the temple of Aphrodite, the southern gallery offers a good image of the technique of the prehistoric inhabitants of the area. The halls were not divided internally, and a low inner wall with seat protrusions surrounded the huge mosaic floor. Only a small part of this floor is kept intact at the western end of the building and is accessible to the public using a staircase, while on the central axis of the building, a series of Doric columns with square bases, probably used in order to support the roof.

The two temples had a completely different orientation. The ruins of Sanctuary I proved that this ancient temple consisted of an open-air courtyard enclosed with megalithic walls and a gallery at the center of which the conical stone was kept. The worship symbol of the goddess was also preserved in the Roman Sanctuary II, which was designed in the same pattern, built in the shape of a west-facing Greek letter “Π”, combining eastern and western architectural traditions, and included an internal open-air courtyard, the eastern and northern side of which was covered with galleries. The wall of the Sanctuary I had deep irregular holes, to which post-construction defects were attributed. A series of stairs led down to the open-air courtyard, on the floor of which a slab with a concavity that was probably used in a ritual, was revealed. On the other hand, a built with hewed stones and enclosed in solid walls chamber of the temple of Aphrodite, probably housed the shrine of the sanctuary during the Late Bronze Age. Between the northern and southern walls of this room, there were two sets of square bases that supported pillars with elaborate corners. Indeed, the pillar at the northern end of the eastern hall is still in place for more than 3000 years. From the votive monuments of the area, a jar with embossed decorations on one of its handles and a rectangular basin were excavated from the room almost intact.

At about 40 meters west of the Sanctuary II, the remains of a large Roman peristyle house of the 1st century AD were excavated. The rooms of this house were surrounded by a peristyle patio, the center of which was covered with a simple mosaic. Then, northwest of the house of the Temple of Aphrodite, more remains of Roman residences came to light, on the ruins of which was built the small Byzantine church of Agios Nikolaos (16th century). Around this small Byzantine temple, many tombs and burial offerings of the time have been found over the years. Finally, to the northwest of the sanctuary of Aphrodite, the famous mosaic of the Roman “House of Leda” (a summer dining room of the 2nd or early 3rd century AD) was discovered, depicting Leda and the Swan in an unusual composition, and testifying to the richness of the ancient Palaipaphos. Today, the Temple of Aphrodite is linked to the Aphrodite’s cultural route, organized by the Cypriot Tourism Organization (KOT).