Anyway, having had our fill of the church we continued down the track. The going gets a bit more heavier going now, and towards the end it is no place to be after lots of rain, so do bear that in mind if you are thinking of following us. It was such a pretty route that I will probably publish a little film of the street view footage I took, and you will be able to judge it for yourself then.

Further down the track, passed a goat farm, we came across some more ruins. I tried looking this up on Kitchener's Victorian Map of Cyprus, but that was of no help. Indeed, when I looked at the monastery on the old map, it was quite some distance from the church we just visited. Normally you would expect a certain degree of inaccuracy, but this was way off. Take a look at the comparison map and you can see what I mean:

The old map is on the left. I have superimposed the actual location of the monastery, and as you can see, it is about a quarter of a mile out. This is unusual, as it is normally more accurate than that. But if you were going on the old map alone, then you would reasonably think that the ruins in the picture above are actually the old monastery, as they are much nearer.

Don't worry, I'm not suggesting that that is the case, but I was surprised to see how far off the mark the old map was. It is normally a lot better.

While writing this blog I did a bit of research and found out some more about the monastery. It turns out that in the past it was a bit of a big deal. The following is translated from some Greek text I found online:

The Monastery of Agios Georgios Nikoxylitis is located about 3 km northeast of the village of Drousseia, Paphos province. The nickname Nikoxylitis is not known where it came from, as is the exact date the monastery was founded. According to sources, the dating of the monastery dates back to the 9th to 10th century and was built by the monks of an older monastery dedicated again to Saint George, which they abandoned because of the Arab invasions.

The monastery acquired particular wealth and was at its peak during the Venetian occupation until the beginning of the 19th century, where it was one of the richest monasteries of Cyprus with large real estate and many shareholdings. The descending course of the Monastery began in 1808, when the Turks held all the bishops of the island hostage and demanded a huge sum from the Cypriot people in order to liberate them. It was then decided to divest part of the real estate of the richer temples and monasteries in order to free the bishops. Among the richest monasteries was the Monastery of St. George of Nikoxylitis, where much of its real estate was sold to individuals.

Only the church of Agios Georgios was left of the monastery, which was renovated from the foundations in 1923 after a fire. The church along the way was left untouched by earthquakes and was seriously damaged by earthquakes that struck Paphos in the 1950s. The chapel is stone-built in a single-aisle basilica style. Its interior is extremely austere as it consists of a simple iconostasis with few images.

The Monastery of St. George of Nikoxylitis, though a simple building, is one of our cultural heritage monuments, with a centuries-long history.

So perhaps the second set of ruins is part of the older monastery?

Enough about history, let's enjoy the view.

Ah, there is something magical about Cyprus in the springtime. I posted a 360 shot on our facebook page which is worth checking out too.