Paphos Life

In the Sinti Monastery blog by Max, I started to pull him slightly off topic from his central theme. Best I start a new thread, in order to ask him (and anyone else who wants to join in) some more questions regarding Riccos Beach, which has no connection whatsoever with a monastery 22km away up in the Xeros river valley!

cyprusmax47 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 22, 2017 8:23 am

PaphosAL wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:14 pm Sorry, Max, but that land plot is too far away from Riccos Beach

Alan, I would not focus only on Riccos Beach Bar, you never know, but perhaps it will disappear in the near future... There are big plans in the pipeline for that area..

Max

Any idea what these development plans comprise of please, Max? And why the Geroskipou Planning Authority cannot leave Andreas at Riccos Beach alone? After all, he only occupies a tiny beachfront patch at the bottom left corner of this 'area'.

To see him bulldozed (as has been threatened before) would be such a sad amenity loss to locals, expats, and tourists...

Cheers- AL

That is never going to happen. A man made island? Why?

What may happen though is a stretch of clean beach with facilities for tourists, a bit like Limassol promenade.

Thanks, Max! A totally different scenario to what I first imagined... So we're talking about a 5* development on the peninsula between Louis Phaeton Beach and Constantinou Bros Pioneer Beach hotels. That was always bound to happen (and the church rakes in a few more million €uros for the land sale?)...

The man-made Divinia island opposite looks a bit 'pie in the sky' to me, to be honest. And why are they proposing to build a bridge from there to the mainland into what looks like Riccos Beach territory, THREE times longer than a bridge that connects to their own 'parent' penisular a bit further up, with easy road access, I wonder?

Cheers- AL

Yeah, like the proposed casino on top of Geronisos Island (Agios Georgios), a 5,000 year old archaeological site!

Cheers- AL

I don't remember plans for anything on Geronisos Island, its very definitely The responsibility of the Govt Antiquities Branch as it is home to a unique archaeological site. Even getting there can be very difficult.
There were a few years back plans for a ghastly looking development on/adjacent to Aphrodities Rock. There was to be a man made 'rock with a huge statue of Aphrodite on top of it. Also included in this development was a proposal for a commercial centre,casino and other tourist type facilities.. Fortunately there was the equivalent of a public outcry about this attempt to ruin a beauty spot with modern commercial tat! The scheme was eventually dropped.
Dee

The (aborted) developers plans for a casino on Geronisos Island were well documented here on PL, Dee...

Cheers- AL

Kili01 wrote: ↑Sun Sep 24, 2017 7:01 pm I don't remember plans for anything on Geronisos Island, its very definitely The responsibility of the Govt Antiquities Branch as it is home to a unique archaeological site. Even getting there can be very difficult.
Dee

PaphosAL wrote: ↑Sun Sep 24, 2017 8:43 pm The (aborted) developers plans for a casino on Geronisos Island were well documented here on PL, Dee...

Cheers- AL

copy of my previous post: so you perhaps remember it

The island lies 280 meters off the harbor at Agios Georgios-tis-Peyia on the western coast of Cyprus, approximately 17 kilometers north of the city of Paphos, which served as the capital of Cyprus during the Hellenistic period (323-30 B.C.). Its commanding cliffs rise some 21 meters up from the sea; severe erosion has left its flanks dangerously steep and exposed. In 1981, the spectacular setting attracted developers wishing to build a casino resort on the island, to be connected to the mainland by a causeway. Under the direction of Dr. Sophocles Hadjisavvas, the Cypriot Department of Antiquities conducted trial excavations on Yeronisos in 1982, establishing the presence of extensive archaeological remains which led to the expropriation of the island as important resource for the cultural heritage of Cyprus. https://www.nyu.edu/projects/yeronisos/yer2.html

Max

Forgot to mention that Dr. Hadjisavvas and his team did also the excavation of the ancient oil mill/storage complex at Mandria, Dominic's last blog....
which I believe is from a similar period as Yeronisos Island.
Max

Well, all this happened some time ago in 1981-2!
So I was correct in saying what I did about this island being under the protection of the antiquities board since then. A few months ago I went to a most interesting lecture given by Dr Joan Connolly, the American archaelogist who with generations of her uni students has been excavating on Geronissos. She gave a truly fascinationg lecture at a school in Ag. Georgious, under the auspices of Paphos City of Culture. It was well illustrated with her collection of slides. Apparently, the island was probably used for religious purposes which involved using a number of boys. It seems to,have been a masculine community there.The island was not continuously occupied, but was used by three different communities over a long period of time from BC times, then a lapse of several centuries through Roman, then another long gap in time to the final settlement some time in the middle ages. The island is in a very exposed location and the weather and action of the sea has caused a lot of erosion to the cliffs and there is some evidence of certain buildings there collapsing as the ground under them was eroded.
Dee