Paphos is the city where mythology, archaeology and the sea meet. Here, according to legend, Aphrodite rose from the water, and here, very much for real, the Romans left one of the most spectacular collections of mosaics in the Mediterranean. Walking through the Kato Paphos Archaeological Park, with its Roman houses covered in tiled floors that tell stories of gods and heroes, is like opening an illustrated book of the ancient world in the open air. It's no surprise that the whole city has been a World Heritage Site since 1980.
But Paphos is much more than ruins. It's a fishing harbour crowned by a medieval castle, an upper town of shopping streets and squares, the striking rock-cut Tombs of the Kings, Byzantine churches and hillside monasteries, and a perfect base for exploring one of the island's last unspoilt corners: the Akamas Peninsula, with its hidden coves, its trails and the legendary Baths of Aphrodite. In 2017 it was European Capital of Culture, a boost that revitalised its historic centre.
This guide covers Paphos with a practical, friendly eye: what to see in the archaeological park and how much it costs, how to visit the Tombs of the Kings, how to get between the lower and upper towns, where to sleep and eat, and how to plan the trip to Akamas. Ideal if you want to combine culture, beach and nature in one destination, with the mildest climate in Cyprus and a history that goes back to the time of the gods.
Paphos has two historical souls. Ancient Palaipaphos (today Kouklia), with its famous sanctuary of Aphrodite, was for more than a thousand years one of the greatest centres of worship in the Greek world. And Nea Paphos, the new city by the sea founded around the 4th century BC, which in Hellenistic and Roman times became the capital of Cyprus: the extraordinary mosaics of the Roman houses and the Tombs of the Kings date from those centuries of splendour. Saint Paul preached here in the 1st century. Earthquakes, Arab raids and the transfer of the capital led to the city's decline; it revived under the Lusignans, the Venetians and the Ottomans, and above all in modern times as a tourist and cultural destination. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The west of the island, heart of the age-old cult of Aphrodite and capital of Roman Cyprus. It has the mosaics and the Tombs of the Kings of Paphos, a World Heritage Site, and the unspoilt Akamas peninsula.
Read the history of The west (Paphos, Akamas) →If you book from here we earn a commission and you pay no more. Prices and availability come from Civitatis.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The story of Paphos begins inland, in what is now the village of Kouklia, the site of Palaipaphos, 'Old Paphos'. From the end of the Bronze Age (around the 12th century BC), this was home to one of the most famous sanctuaries of the ancient world: the Sanctuary of Paphian Aphrodite. For more than fifteen hundred years, pilgrims from all over the Mediterranean came here to worship the goddess of love and beauty. Tradition says she was born from the sea foam on the nearby coast, at today's Petra tou Romiou.
The cult had very old roots that went back before the Greeks arrived. It mixed Aegean and Eastern elements and was related to the fertility goddesses of the Near East. The most unusual thing is that Aphrodite was not shown here in human form. Instead, she was represented by a large, dark, cone-shaped stone, a baetyl, that stood for the goddess. The sanctuary had an 'unbroken continuity of worship' until AD 391, when the Roman emperor Theodosius I banned all pagan religions.
The kings of Paphos were also the high priests of the cult, which shows how closely religion and power were tied together. Palaipaphos was one of the city-kingdoms of Cyprus, and its religious prestige spread across the whole island, known in Antiquity as 'the island of Aphrodite'. Today its ruins, together with those of Nea Paphos, are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Around 320 BC, Nicocles, the last king of Old Paphos, founded a new city by the sea: Nea Paphos ('New Paphos'), where Kato Paphos stands today. The city had a good harbour, and its strategic position helped it grow quickly. Cyprus later came under the Ptolemies, the Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt after the death of Alexander the Great. Nea Paphos then became the capital of the island, and it kept that role for centuries under the Romans too.
As the capital, Nea Paphos enjoyed great splendour. It filled up with temples, theatres, an agora, an odeon and, above all, luxurious mansions whose floors were covered with mosaics of exceptional quality. The ones we admire today in the archaeological park, in the Houses of Dionysus, Theseus, Aion and Orpheus, date from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. They show mythological scenes, hunts and Bacchic themes in amazing detail and colour. They are among the finest groups of Roman mosaics in the eastern Mediterranean and the main reason Paphos is a World Heritage Site.
Outside the city, the local aristocracy was buried in the monumental Tombs of the Kings. These tombs were cut into the rock, with courtyards surrounded by columns that copied the houses of the living. The name is misleading: no kings were buried here. They belonged to senior officials and leading citizens of Ptolemaic and Roman Paphos. Their grand scale gives you an idea of how wealthy the city became as the capital.
Paphos has an important place in the history of early Christianity. According to the Acts of the Apostles, around AD 45-46 the apostles Paul and Barnabas landed on the island during Paul's first missionary journey. Barnabas was himself a native of Cyprus. They crossed Cyprus from east to west and reached Paphos, then the Roman capital. There a key event took place: the conversion of the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus, the governor of the island.
In the biblical account, a sorcerer named Elymas tried to stop the preaching, and Paul struck him temporarily blind. The proconsul was so impressed that he embraced the Christian faith. Sergius Paulus is therefore known as the first Roman governor to convert to Christianity, which makes Paphos a milestone in the spread of the new religion across the Empire. Local tradition adds that before this success, Paul was tied to a column and whipped in the city. This is the so-called 'Saint Paul's Pillar', which you can still see at the site of Agia Kyriaki Chrysopolitissa.
Important traces of those early Christian centuries remain in Paphos. Among them are the remains of the great 4th-century basilica on the same Agia Kyriaki site, with beautiful floor mosaics. The Christian legacy was added to the pagan one, so the city of Aphrodite also became a land of apostles. The goddess's cult finally died out after the bans of the 4th century.
The splendour of Paphos did not last forever. In late Antiquity, a series of violent earthquakes, especially those of the 4th century AD, destroyed much of the city, and it never fully regained its former glory. The island's capital also moved away, first to Salamis-Constantia and later to Nicosia, inland. Paphos lost its old political importance.
From the 7th century onwards, Arab raids struck the coasts of Cyprus again and again, and Paphos was hit too. To defend the harbour, the castle of Saranta Kolones ('Forty Columns') was built towards the end of that century. The Frankish Lusignans later rebuilt it as a medieval fortress, and an earthquake ruined it in 1223. Paphos was then ruled by the Lusignans (1192-1489), the Republic of Venice (1489-1571) and the Ottoman Empire (from 1571). Over those centuries it shrank to a modest town, a long way from the great capital it had once been.
The harbour kept its small castle, which was rebuilt again and again. Byzantines, Lusignans, Venetians and Ottomans all left their mark on it, and it was even used as a prison and a salt store. The town pulled back to the safer upper area (Ktima), while the lower area by the sea (Kato Paphos) slowly declined. It stayed that way through the Ottoman period and much of the British administration, which began in 1878.
For centuries, Paphos was a quiet provincial town that lived from farming and fishing. Its big transformation came in modern times. Cyprus became independent in 1960. Then, in 1974, the Turkish invasion left the tourist areas of Famagusta and Kyrenia in the north. After that, the Republic of Cyprus focused its tourism development on the south and west of the island. With its mild climate, its beaches and its extraordinary archaeological heritage, Paphos became one of the country's leading destinations.
The opening of its international airport (PFO) and the resorts built along the coast drew millions of visitors, mostly British. Many of them settled in the area, and today Paphos has a sizeable foreign community. UNESCO listed its archaeological sites as World Heritage in 1980, which boosted its profile as a cultural destination and not just a place for sun and sea.
The biggest recognition came in 2017, when Paphos was European Capital of Culture. The title drove the restoration of its historic centre, the creation of new cultural spaces and a packed programme of events. Today, few places in Cyprus combine as much as Paphos does: world-class archaeology, the sea, the unspoilt nature of Akamas and a lively cultural scene. Exploring it takes you from the myth of Aphrodite to Roman mosaics, from the apostles to medieval knights, and from the small Ottoman town to today's cosmopolitan destination. It is layer upon layer of Mediterranean history in one place.
