Apollo Hylates Sanctuary, Kourion, and Limassol Castle, Cyprus

At the Apollo Hylates Sanctuary ticket office, the lady suggested we buy a multi-pass which would cover the 3 sites that we were visiting and save money.  It only cost 8.50 euros.  We entered the Apollo site and once again we were still amazed that you could walk all over it.  This site has some elaborate columns.  

Apollo was the protector of the city of Kourion and people came to worship at the sanctuary.  It dates back to the 8th century BCE to the 4th century AD.

A lot of broken columns due to earthquakes, vandalism and age

This remnant of the urn to the left was full of sacrifices such as remnants of bones etc.

This beautiful marble column is just lying at the site and has not even been excavated yet.  It must be overwhelming for archeologists in Cyprus because there are so many sites of historical significance.  You would need an army of Archeologists at each site to do it justice.

This is the remnants of the Roman baths that were left behind.

Kourion was a very large extensive site. It was an ancient Grecian city that dates back to 1050 BC. Kourion was in Egyptian, Persian, Roman, and Greek hands at one time.  The history of Cyprus is quite long and confusing.

Kourion survived many earthquakes and was rebuilt often.

There is the Agros or Forum area which was a large area with numerous columns and it must have been beautiful in its heyday.

The Gladiator House was quite large as he would have been a famous celebrity of his time.  This was a Roman House and had extensive mosaic tiling in all of the rooms.

The most impressive building was the theater which was built to seat 3000.

The views from Kourion were stunning.  The theatre even faced the water.  If you were in the audience then you would be looking at the beautiful views of the Mediterranean Sea as lions and tigers ripped apart small slave children for the entertainment of the people who could afford a ticket.

We stopped for lunch at a traditional Cypriot Restaurant on the harbour front and we tried Grilled Halloumi Cheese.  It was delicious.  They call it squeaky cheese.  It was salty but tasty and very unique.

Limassol Castle was a delight to walk through and explore. All of its rooms including dungeon rooms were set up as a Museum.  "According to tradition, this is where Richard the Lionheart married Berengaria of Navarre and crowned her Queen of England in 1191."

There was a large collection of tombstones in the museum as well as pottery and stone reliefs.

This was one of our favourite tombstones to the right.  They were all close to 6 feet tall.

The castle was built in 1193 and then the castle was captured by the Ottomans in the 1500s who strengthened and renovated it and basically took out the pretty.  They increased the wall thickness for defence.  The walls have been peeled back to show the original style when it was first built in 1193.

Some of my favourite museum pieces. 

This was downstairs in the basement.  It had elaborate Gothic columns.

This was a beautiful sarcophagus which I had never seen anything like it before.

Beautiful Castle doors to the left.

After visiting the Castle we moved on to Gelato hunting and found a delicious place close to the castle in Old Town. The flavour I chose was Mastika/Pistachio.  Mastika is made from the sap of the Mastic Tree which grows in Cyprus.  Mastika is drunk to help with your digestive system.  It has a piney taste but mixed with Pistachio it was delicious.

We walked around Old Town Limassol for a bit and then we were on our way.

The Ottoman Turk influence is seen on the building to the left.