Limassol Zoo Garden
Daily
Zoo Garden, Limassol
Nowadays, zoos are quite important and have an educational and scientific utility. They are facilities, which may contribute to animals’ breeding and preserving, mainly in the case of rare species’ or of those facing extermination. Therefore the zoos contribute to knowing them better and are directly involved in the world nature protection strategy mainly to the rare species’ or those facing extermination.
Limassol Zoo Garden is home to a diverse collection of around 300 animals and birds, a natural history museum, an educational centre and a special children's area.
Residents here include lions and tigers and bears, panthers and zebras and monkeys, ostriches, peacocks, vultures, emu, falcons and macaws. Sheep, goats, donkeys, hens and rabbits can be found in the kids' area. Most of the larger animals are from circuses, other zoos or have been donated.
South of the zoo, on the coast, is the Natural History Museum and educational centre, which regularly screens wildlife and nature films.
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Cyprus Donkey Sanctuary
Daily
Cyprus Donkey Sanctuary, Limassol
A visit to the Cyprus Donkey Sanctuary makes for a relaxing day out in the Troodos hills. There are a dozen enclosures featuring stables, stores and exercise yards, with 120 donkeys who are cared for entirely on donations.
Cyprus Donkey Sanctuary, Lemesos
4772 Vouni village, Lemesos district
Tel: 00 357 25 94 41 51 / 25 94 54 88 /
99 43 36 95
Opening hours: Monday to Saturday: 10:00hrs-16:00hrs
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Nicosia Race Club
Daily
Nicosia Race Club, Lefkosia (Nicosia)
The Nicosia Race Club is the only organization in Cyprus authorized to organize horse races in Cyprus and accept pari-mutuel bets on them.
The Club is managed by the Committee of Management elected every three years by its members.
All races are performed at the Nicosia Racecourse in Ayios Dometios, a suburb of Nicosia the capital of Cyprus.
Races are organized on Sundays and most Wednesdays in winter and spring and on Wednesdays and most Saturdays in the Summer and Fall. Races are also organized on most major holidays. …
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Secret Valley Golf Club
Secret Valley Golf Club, Paphos
Close to the legendary birthplace of the goddess Aphrodite, Petra tou Romiou, the Secret Valley Golf Club's scenic valley location offers panoramic views to golfers from the 72-par, 6120-metre course.
Cyprus is the new jewel in the crown for golfers seeking golfing breaks in the warmth of the eastern Mediterranean. It offers golfers challenging world class championship courses, top quality hotels, safety, warm hospitality and almost year round sunshine. As one of the most scenic places in the world, Cyprus golf courses are full of breath taking holes which will make for times never forgotten. There are many Cyprus golf packages to choose from here at Bookcyprus.com. Experience the beauty of this area and golf in Cyprus!
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Pierides Museum
Daily; not Sun
Pierides Museum, Larnaca
Opening Hours:
9am-4pm (until 1pm Fri-Sat)
The Pierides Museum, Larnaca, Cyprus
The Pierides Museum is home to a collection of precious folkloric and archaeological artefacts which has been assembled over five generations by the Pierides family. Begun by the great scholar, Demetrios Pierides (1811-1895) and continued by his sons, their wives and their children, it is a veritable treasure chest of 9000 years of Cypriot history.
The key features of the collection include rare ceramics from the prehistoric period (7000 BC) and jars, cups, bowls and plates from the Myceanean (1300 BC), Hellenistic (350 BC), Roman (100 AD), Byzantine (400 AD), Crusader (1100AD), Frankish (1200), Venetian (1500BC) and Turkish (1700 AD) periods.
In addition to beautiful ceramics, there is a precious collection of antique maps of the island and a wide-ranging collection of items including embroideries, woven clothes, carved wooden furniture, jewellery, copper utensils and traditional costumes from the 18th-20th centuries. For gun lovers, the rifles and guns dating from the Turkish period will also be of interest.
The museum also holds the world's most important collection of Cypriot Medieval (Byzantine) glazed ceramic vessels dating from the 13th-16th centuries and a rare collection of 660 Roman glassware items, the most complete of its kind in Europe. A display case of modern Greek and Cypriot sculptures can be seen in the courtyard.
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Paphos' Roman Mosaics
Daily
Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
Opening Hours:
8am-5pm (until 4pm Apr-May & Sep-Oct; until 7.30pm Jun-Aug)
Paphos' sumptuous Roman mosaics are some of the finest to have been discovered anywhere in the world. They decorated the homes of the imperial Roman commanders who governed Cyprus 2000 years ago and tell the stories of key mythological episodes, including Dionysus' gift of wine to man.
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The Roman mosaics were stumbled upon by a ploughing farmer back in 1961. Following extensive excavations by Polish and Cypriot archaeologists, three separate Roman villas have now been unearthed and are open to the public.
Mosaics in the House of Dionysus show the God of wine, Dionysus, giving the secret of viticulture to Ikarios, the King of Athens. This is one of the earliest depictions of drunks ever found and the two peasants lie prostrate beside an empty amphora of wine in the final panel.
The second villa to see is the House of Aion, where a mosaic of the birth of Dionysus from the 5th century reveals how closely the early Christian artists drew on classical scenes to inspire their work.
The final villa excavated, the House of Theseus, must have been an enormous complex and well demonstrates the wealth and splendour of the Roman occupation of the Cypriot capital. Don't miss the particularly fine rendering of Theseus' fight with the Minotaur in the Labyrinth.
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Larnaca Fort
Weekdays only
Larnaca Fort, Larnaca
Home to Larnaca District Medieval Museum, Larnaca Fort marks the end of the seafront promenade and houses historical objects including cannons, suits of armour, lace from nearby Lefkara and other assorted items.
Built in 1625 under Ottoman rule, the fort was later used as a prison when the British took over Cyprus in 1878. In summer it is sometimes the venue for concerts and other special events organised by the Municipal Cultural Centre.
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Tombs of the Kings
Daily
Tombs of the Kings, Paphos
The Tombs of the Kings are an early necropolis in Paphos dating from 300 BC. The burial niches were looted of all artifacts long ago, but a powerful sense of stillness and mystery remains.
The tombs are impressive, carved out of solid rock, some featuring Doric pillars and frescoed walls. The design is heavily indebted to Macedonian prototypes, passed on from Alexander's armies to the Ptolemies.
Eight complexes have been singled out and numbered for visitors, with 3, 4, and 8 being the most elaborate.
Some tombs are reached via stairs that lead into sunken rectangular courts surrounded by Doric columns carved from the rock. Originally the tombs were covered with stucco and the walls were decorated with frescoes.
Beyond the colonnades, passages lead to rooms with niches (loculi) for individual corpses. Bodies were buried with costly grave goods, including jewelry and cosmetic boxes.
As was common in the classical world, on the anniversaries of death loved ones would hold a ceremonial meal (nekrodhipno) at the tomb, with the leftovers deposited near the body.
One tomb has a large rectangular stone block in the center of the atrium and loculi ornamented around the sides. Archaeologists have excavated 18 burials from the Hellenistic period in this tomb, three of which had not been robbed due to collapsed material in front of them. Two of them contained an ointment container, a myrtle wreath of gold and fine Rhodian amphorae. In the third, a child had been buried in a terracotta pipe.
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Limassol Archaeological Museum
Daily; not Sun
Limassol Archaeological Museum, Limassol
The Archaeological Museum in Limassol was founded in 1948 and was initially housed in a part of the Limassol Castle. During the conflicts of 1964 it remained close as it was transferred to the National Guard.
Construction activities both for the new modern Museum and the Court House began in 1972.
The new exhibition was rearranged in March 1975 , under extremely difficult circumstances related to the recent Turkish invasion of the island.
The Castle itself was restored and its prison cells (dating to a reconstruction phase during the Ottoman period) were adapted to house the new Cypriot Medieval Museum. The Castle exhibition consists of artefacts of the latest periods of Cypriot History, beginning from the 4th and 5th centuries AD and covering all the historical periods to the early phases of the Ottoman period, 16th-17th cent.
The Archaeological Museum is housing antiquities that have been found during systematic and rescue excavations of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus and of the foreign Archaeological Missions in the City and the District of Limassol as well.
Through the exhibited material the visitors can follow the development of civilisation in the island from the 9th millennium to the end of antiquity (Late Roman period).
