Paphos lighthouse and the archaeological park

The castle and the light at the end of the harbour. Late afternoon is the hour the stone goes warm.

1 דקות קריאהFrom four in the afternoon in summer, when the park is cooler and the stone turns warm. The park closes at sunset.

Paphos lighthouse and the archaeological park

צילום: Sergei Gussev / Pexels

The lighthouse stands on the low headland west of Paphos harbour, inside the Kato Paphos archaeological park. It was built by the British in 1888 and it is still working, a plain white tower on a hill of thyme and ruins. You cannot go up it. You walk to it, and the walk is the thing.

The park around it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the reason is under cover a few hundred metres away: the Roman villas of Dionysos, Theseus and Aion, with floor mosaics from the second to fourth centuries that are among the best anywhere in the Mediterranean. Theseus fighting the Minotaur in a labyrinth of coloured stone; Dionysos riding a leopard. Allow two hours for the mosaics, and then walk out to the lighthouse along the paths through the ruins of the agora and the odeon.

The harbour

Back at the harbour, the small Ottoman-era castle at the end of the quay is open, and climbing to its roof costs a couple of euros for a view of the whole bay. The harbour-front restaurants are where the day ends for most people, and that is where a membership turns up in Paphos: a drink with the meal, on the days the kitchen is glad of you.