Paul and Sergius Paulus at Paphos
“And when they had gone through the whole island unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus; who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of understanding…then the proconsul, when he saw what was done, believed… Now Paul and his company set sail from Paphos…” Acts 13:6-7, 12-13
Our first morning and we had a beautiful walk along the Paphos shoreline down to the ancient harbor of Nea Paphos that dates to the 300’s BC. When Rome conquered Cyprus, Nea Paphos became the capital city which is the reason Sergius Paulus was living here as proconsul at the time of Paul and Barnabas’s 1st missionary journey. You can still see part of the ancient harbor mole. Craig was able to capture some drone footage.
The archeological park has excavations of a number of large roman homes - mansions really - one of which was for the proconsul. The guest reception area of that domas has beautiful 3rd c AD mosaic floor (post dating Paul’s visit) but underneath are the 1st century mosaic floors. Gorgeous hot day exploring!
We used the hop on hop off tourist bus to get to a few other sites. The Tomb of the Kings is a unesco world heritage site that is a necropolis of rock carved tomb complexes dating from the 3rd century BC to the 4th century AD. Some of them are incredible feats of carving and stone work. After a couple of hours, we all said “ok, that’s enough, we’ve seen enough of the tombs” about 10 more times as we tried to leave the area but each one we came upon was too enticing to pass up!
There is a small archeological museum in Paphos with findings from the neolithic period all the way through the roman era. There is also an area of excavated very early Byzantine churches that was under construction. We were able to see quite a bit through the fence, including what is called the “pillar of St Paul”. Tradition holds that he was scourged at that pillar during his time in Paphos.
We ended the day with a lovely dinner next to the sea and then managed a final walk back to the hotel. Tomorrow we have a driver who will take us to the nearby site of ancient Kourion then the airport and on to Malta.
Thanking God for a safe day and success in seeing all that we had planned. God’s Blessings, PB & Marge, Scott and Shelly.
Ancient Harbor of Paphos, Cyprus
