When in Cyprus, don't limit yourself to the main cities and coastal resorts. Spread your wings by venturing into the countryside.

From fragrant citrus orchards and olive groves, rolling vineyards, wide open plains carpeted with colourful wild flowers, to cool pine forests and pristine beaches where turtles nest, Cyprus’ nature will delight you at all times of year.

Go on a wine or culinary tour discovering age-old villages cascading down hillsides with shady squares where you can sit at the coffee shop and mix with the locals. Spend a relaxing day at one of the salt lakes where you can observe nature and wildlife to your heart’s content; Or visit some of Europe’s most evocative ancient sites, Neolithic settlements and quaint medieval churches. Cyprus offers the full Mediterranean experience in a compact area that's easy to reach.

Places to visit

Tombs of the Kings

The Medieval walls of Lefkosia

The first walls surrounding Lefkosia in the 14th century were built by the Franks and enclosed a much larger area than the 16th Venetian Walls that still surround the old town. When the Venetians occupied Cyprus, they decided to demolish the Frankish Walls because they were old and did not offer adequate defence against new weapons such as artillery. The Frankish Walls were also too big to be manned by the Venetian army and too close to the hills in the east and southeast of the city.

Forming a circle, the walls built by the Venetians were fortified by eleven heart - shaped bastions and protected by an 80 metres wide moat. They were built of mud - brick, with the lower part only buttressed by stone. When the Ottomans occupied Lefkosia, they repaired the walls and covered the upper part with stones. The moat around the walls now has many different uses, serving as sports fields, public gardens, an open - air sculpture exhibition, car parks etc.

Pitsilia Wine Route

Pine and vines grow freely into the mountainsides exuding rural charm. Neat villages and friendly people complete the picture. Several villages are included inthe 'Nom d'Origine' Pitsilia, an area that spreads around the mountain peaks of Madari, Papoutsa and the north-western part of Machairas. Here the altitude secures a more slow and effortless grape maturity, whilst the arid and sloping earth forces the vines to huddle together and produce richer wines. Classic local grape varieties continue to have a dominant presence amongst the vineyards of Pitsilia, with occasional encounters of the Maratheftiko, a rare variety which the old wine frowers cultivated in between the Mavro in order to enrich the colour and smell of their wines.

Maa - Palaeokastro Settlement

The site is well known for its fortification walls, reminiscent of Mycenaean Cyclopean architecture. These large ashlar blocks and the steep rugged cliffs on the other sides of the site offered protection to the inhabitants of Maa and it is believed that the site had a specific defensive function. Despite its strong protective character, the site's life span was short and came to an end c.1200 BC.

The fortifications of the settlement consist of two separate walls. The first wall protected the settlement from the land, as it blocked the whole width of the narrowest part of the peninsula. The second offered protection from the sea, as it is located on the edge of the peninsula, just next to the sea. Both these fortifications were built in the same way, strongly reminiscent of the ‘Cyclopean’ style of Mycenaean walls. The walls which faced towards the land have a total length of 70m and a width of 3.5m. They have a gate 4m wide. The lower part of the walls has two parallel rows of boulders, the gap between them filled with smaller stones. The upper part seems to have been built of mud-brick. The sea-front wall was built in the same way, but the boulders of the lower part were of a smaller size.

Many archaeologists associate the destruction of Maa and other Late Bronze Age sites, with the appearance of the ‘Sea People’, blamed by scholars for causing wide spread disorder and destruction throughout the Eastern Mediterranean towards the end of the Bronze Age.

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