The Tombs of the Kings

The Tombs of the Kings are an early necropolis in Paphos dating from 300 BC. The burial niches were looted of all artifacts long ago, but a powerful sense of stillness and mystery remains.

HistoryThe name of the site is misleadingâ??there's no evidence of any royalty buried here. Rather, the site was the final resting place of about 100 Ptolemaic aristocrats who lived and died in Paphos beginning in the 3rd century BC.

Early antiquarians dubbed the site the "Tombs of the Kings" due to the impressiveness of the tombs, and the name has stuck.

The catacombs were later used by early Christians, and one of the tombs was turned into a chapel. In the Middle Ages, some tombs were used as makeshift dwellings or as workplacesâ??pottery was made in tomb 3.

The site was systematically looted of artifacts long before excavations began in 1977. Investigations continue today under the Cyprus Department of Antiquities.

The tombs are impressive, carved out of solid rock, some featuring Doric pillars and frescoed walls. The design is heavily indebted to Macedonian prototypes, passed on from Alexander's armies to the Ptolemies.

Eight complexes have been singled out and numbered for visitors, with 3, 4, and 8 being the most elaborate.

Some tombs are reached via stairs that lead into sunken rectangular courts surrounded by Doric columns carved from the rock. Originally the tombs were covered with stucco and the walls were decorated with frescoes.

Beyond the colonnades, passages lead to rooms with niches (loculi) for individual corpses. Bodies were buried with costly grave goods, including jewelry and cosmetic boxes.

As was common in the classical world, on the anniversaries of death loved ones would hold a ceremonial meal (nekrodhipno) at the tomb, with the leftovers deposited near the body.

One tomb has a large rectangular stone block in the center of the atrium and loculi ornamented around the sides. Archaeologists have excavated 18 burials from the Hellenistic period in this tomb, three of which had not been robbed due to collapsed material in front of them. Two of them contained an ointment container, a myrtle wreath of gold and fine Rhodian amphorae. In the third, a child had been buried in a terracotta pipe.



From Sacred Destinations




It was a hot, sunny day when we visited the Tombs and for some strange reason, this made it all the more real than if it had been a dark, dull day.

Looking down at a very odd angle -




This fenced-in area is right next to the sea. On the other side of the fence, is the Promenade. Actually, on this part, it was just a track -









The Cyclamen were just starting to bloom when we were there. I read that a few weeks later, the whole area would be covered in them -

 

Thanks for sharing that Sis ... your history blog is always interesting and the photos are great .... makes me feel like I was there with you. :gnthb:

I bet the Cyclamen must be a sight to behold ... you know how much I love them.

Again, thanks. xx

 

Thanks for those Kedi-Gato
Paphos is becoming increasingly attractive as a possible holiday destination!

 

Thanks Sis and Dave.

I forgot to mention that the island you can vaguely see on this pic -



is Geronisos Island.

We never heard anything about it while we were there, but I found this on the net this evening -

Yeronisos, or "Sacred Island", is 12,000 square meters of calcareous rock rising dramatically from the swelling seas just off the coast of western Cyprus. Since 1990 it has been the extraordinary setting for a total island study undertaken by Professor Joan Breton Connelly and the Yeronisos Island Expedition for New York University. The project pioneers the integration of ecological and archaeological fieldwork toward the common goal of preserving natural and cultural resources.

Results from four seasons of excavation show that Yeronisos had an active Chalcolithic phase (3100 B.C.) and flourished under the rule of the famous Egyptian Queen Cleopatra (50-30 B.C.). Coins, pottery, glass, inscriptions, and unique architectural remains suggest that Yeronisos preserves one of the most signficant Ptolemaic sites ouside of Egypt. An earthquake seems to have devestated the island during the late 1st century B.C./early 1st century A.D. after which it remained abandoned, aside from some squatters' activity, until the 6th century A.D. when a reservoir with impluvium, and animal shelters were built.

http://www.nyu.edu/projects/yeronisos/home2.html

 

Lovely pics KediGato,

As we walked round we gota definite sense of solemnity, it`s a magical place Cyprus.


These are some pics taken of my family during a particularly beautiful sunset. we had a villa on the beach at Latsi.






This is one of my favourite pictures of my family,



This is one of the little town of Polis just gearing up for the night







I can`t believe I was on this truly stunning island, the above was taken about 4 yrs ago.

 

Lovely pics, Claire! Especially the second one where you can just see the last bit of the sun going down and the family silhoueted.

We loved Latsi, it was so quiet and natural, not at all touristy. I guess it was livelier when you were there (I assume in the summer hols), but even so, being so small and not built up, it wouldn't be loud even then.

We saw the prettiest apartment complex (perhaps a half a dozen apartments!) directly on the beach near the boats and we said it had such a lovely old-fashioned charm about it, that we would like to have a holiday there. I took a couple of pics of them, I'll get them out tomorrow and uploaded.

 

Cyprus was ruled by the Ptolemies for several hundred years until it was bequeathed to the Roman Republic in 58BC (a common policy by Hellenistic kings as Rome got more powerful:().

Beautiful pictures Kedi-Gato. I've never been, but your photos make me want to visit. As do yours Claire.

Happy to discuss history anytime with you, especially the Classical/Hellenistic periods.

 

Latsi at that time was deathly quiet, they have finished building up the marina there now but that particular year there were only four places you could eat at or drink in after 8pm, and by 11pm everything is shut down. It was deadly quiet.

Further up from here are the Baths of Aphrodite, it`s also a nature reserve, and if you follow the road around to Paphos ( road?! make sure you have a range rover) you will go by the turtle sanctuary where each year hoards of volunteers help the baby turtles down to the sea in the dead of night. Whilst driving along this road I saw the largest mountain goat I have ever seen in my life-it would have taken a braver woman than me to get out of the car within reach of that beast.


Thanks for your kind words about the pics, it is one of my best pictures, it is kind of like a picture of a memory.

 

All this historical education..
If only it was like this when I was at school:gnthb:
Thanks for sharing your visions.
robert

 

Thanks Aaron, Claire and Robert.

It's nice to know who to ask if we have a historical question, Aaron. Thanks for offering :gnthb:

Claire, here are the pics of the apartments I mentioned yesterday. I'm sure you will recognize them, perhaps you even stayed there. As said, it was just a very small complex, but with a pool and you walked straight on to the beach.




This is another very small complex and right next to the above one, you can see the corner of it on the RHS.




We assume that they were holiday apartments, but perhaps they were private. At any rate, they looked lovely from the outside.

 

I think they are the top ones ( odd expression) but are they the ones that as you face out to the sea they are on your very far right?

The ones we were in were slap bang between latsi ( on the right) and polis (to the other side), the planting looks more mature than what was there (the ones we were in) two years ago.

If they are the ones I think they are then they are the holiday homes of Cypriots, and if they are let out they are done so on a private one on one basis.