Paphos is a coastal town in the southwest of Cyprus. In Antiquity two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos and New Paphos. The currently inhabited city is New Paphos.

Paphos is the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, sexual intercourse, and beauty, and the founding myth is interwoven with the goddess at every level. In Greco-Roman times Paphos was the island's capital, and it is famous for the remains of the Roman Governor's palace, where extensive, fine mosaics are a major tourist attraction. The Apostle Paul visited the town during the first century. The town of Paphos is included in the official UNESCO list of cultural and natural treasures of the world's heritage.

The Mayor of the Paphos Municipality is Savvas Vergas, a member of Diko party. The town is capital of Paphos District. Paphos is the birthplace of Marios Joannou Elia, an internationally famous composer and Rauf Denktaş, who was Turkish Cypriot leader for more than 30 years.

Founding myth

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In the founding myth, even the town's name is linked to the goddess, as the eponymous Paphos was the son of Pygmalion and his ivory cult image of Aphrodite, which was brought to life by the Goddess as "milk-white" Galatea. The author of Bibliotheke, the Hellenistic encyclopedia of myth long attributed to Apollodorus, gives the genealogy. Pygmalion was so devoted to the cult of Aphrodite that he removed the statue to his palace and kept it on his couch. The daimon of the goddess entered into the cult image, and the living Galatea bore Pygmalion a son Paphos and a daughter Metharme. Cinyras, perhaps the son of Paphus, but perhaps the successful suitor of Metharme, founded the city under the patronage of Aphrodite and built the great temple to the goddess there. According to another legend preserved by Strabo (xi. p. 505), whose text, however, varies, it was founded by the Amazons.
If mythical time can be related to chronological time, this will have happened in the mid second millennium BC.

History and archaeology

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Archaeologists report that the site of Paphos has been inhabited since the Neolithic period. It was a centre of the cult of Aphrodite and of pre-Hellenic fertility deities. Aphrodite's legendary birthplace was on this island, where her temple was erected by the Myceneans in the twelfth century BC. The remains of villas, palaces, theatres, fortresses and tombs of the Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods mean that the site is of exceptional architectural and historic value. The mosaics of Nea Paphos are among the most beautiful in the world.

The port of Paphos was rebuilt by Nicocles, the last king of Paphos, at the time of Alexander the Great. It became the capital of the island replacing Salamis during the Hellenistic era, under the successors of Alexander the Great – the Ptolemies who favoured a location closer to their capital, Alexandria. The theatre dating to the end of the fourth century BC has been under excavation by the University of Sydney since 1995: it was partly excavated from...