Cyprus: Historical and Descriptive

by Franz von Löher

My journey terminated for the present at the house of the Bishop of Baffo, who resides in Ktima. The bishop, who is a young and stately man, received me with the greatest kindness and affability. He at once conducted me to a luxurious apartment, where we seated ourselves upon soft cushions placed on a costly Turkey carpet, and my host resumed the ten feet long chibouk, filled with choice tobacco, he had been smoking when I was announced, and courteously offered another to me. It was quite evident the worthy bishop was a man of substance, and thoroughly enjoyed the good things of this life. From the roof of the house I obtained a magnificent view of the sea and neighbouring coast.

The Temple of Venus, formerly the great object of interest on this coast, was situated on a small hill at a distance of about twenty minutes’ walk from the sea. Some parts of its colossal walls are still standing, defying time and the stone-cutter, although badly chipped by the latter. The stones, of which these walls are built, are most gigantic, one of them being fifteen feet ten inches in length, by seven feet eleven inches in width, and two feet five inches in thickness. Strange to say, the stone was not quarried in Cyprus, but is a kind of blue granite which must have been imported from either Cilicia, or Egypt. This temple, as rebuilt by Vespasian, seems to have occupied the same area as the former one, and was surrounded by a peribolos, or outer wall. Of this wall, a few huge blocks are now only extant. On the west of this outer wall there was a gateway, still plainly visible; its width was seventeen feet nine inches: the two sockets for the pivots on which the doors swung are of the following dimensions—length six inches, width four and a half inches, depth three and a half inches. The south-east wall was excavated, and its whole length ascertained to be 690 feet. The length of the west side was only traced as far as 272 feet, as the modern houses of Kuklia were erected above it; the length of the other two sides were also for the same reason not ascertained. The walls of the temple itself, which are constructed of the same kind of blue granite, but not in such huge blocks, were only traced with much difficulty, and although very little is to be seen above the surface, yet strange to say, the four corner-stones are still standing. The north-east corner-stone forms part of the wall of a house in Kuklia, while the north-west corner stone stands in a cross street of the village by itself; the south-east corner-stone stands also by itself in an open field, where the Christian population of Kuklia burn lamps and little wax candles, but in honour of whom, or for what purpose, is uncertain. The south-west corner-stone, likewise, forms part of a modern dwelling-house.

The temple was oblong, and of the following dimensions: the eastern and western walls measured 221 feet, and the two other sides 167 feet.

The north-west corner-stone has a hole in it thirteen inches in diameter, and a similar hole also exists in the south-west corner of the outer wall. As this temple possessed an oracle, it is more than probable that the use of these strange holes was connected with it. If a person stands upon one of these huge perforated stones, he can produce a clear and fine echo of a sentence of three or four words, if pronounced in a distinct but moderate tone of voice.

Abundant indications of mosaic pavement, both in the area of the temple and in the court-yard, exist, where can be found, many prettily designed pieces of various colours—yellow, white, red, rose-colour, and brown. About three feet beneath these mosaics, were also found several large pedestals of colossal statues, bearing Greek inscriptions, and many other pedestals were lying about, possibly having been left by former excavators; most of those, which Cesnola discovered under the mosaics, were of the same kind of stone as that of which the walls of the temple were built, but of a finer grain. The inscriptions were of the Ptolemaic period, from which it is probable that Vespasian only repaired the Temple of Paphos, or if he rebuilt it entirely, it was with the former stones. The foundations are only six and a half feet deep, but upon having other borings made another foundation was discovered beneath, but evidently of an earlier period and very massive. Singular to say, in boring no sculptured remains were found, and but few fragments of pottery.[8]

Tacitus gives us the following representation of the sacrificial rites employed in this temple.

“The victims to be sacrificed must be carefully selected, males only being chosen. The safest auguries are obtained from the entrails of goats. It is forbidden to sprinkle blood upon the floor of the temple, and the altar must be purified with prayer and fire. The image of the goddess is not in human shape, but is a rounded stone tapering upwards like a cone. Why such a shape should be adopted is not clearly explained.” At that time, therefore, the worship of this goddess was shrouded in mysterious secrecy. The people only knew that it had been handed down to them from very ancient times. The only answer they received to their inquiries, why it was so, being, “It is a mystery.”

We learn from other sources, that this cone-shaped stone, erected in the innermost sanctuary of the temple, was black. Upon the festivals of the great goddess the stone was carefully washed by the priestesses, and wiped dry with clean towels; possibly its ugliness was set off by golden ornaments and jewels. In the darkness surrounding the Cyprian deity, other mysteries were concealed, admission to which was doubtless only obtainable at a high price. Three ruined walls and a few fragments of an ancient building; scattered here and there over great heaps of rubbish, are all that remain of what once was Paphos. The stones of which it was built, have disappeared long ages ago, used probably, as materials wherewith to build the lordly castles of the Middle Ages, or broken in pieces for the construction of humbler edifices.

During the period that the island was occupied by the Franks, a new city sprang up upon the site of ancient Paphos, which has also disappeared; but of this a ruined church, now used as a cattle-shed, is all that remains. Still, melancholy as is the present condition of the spot, so suggestive are the general features of the locality, that it is not difficult to reconstruct the beautiful landscape it once presented. The temple was situated upon a broad eminence which sloped gently towards the sea, which formed, as it were, a border to the picture. The slope was all covered with luxuriant vegetation.