Trails with Ruins

Where to start

• Choirokoitia — 1.1 km in the Maroni valley beside the Neolithic settlement of Choirokoitia, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
• Apollo Hylates — 3.6 km from the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates past the ancient Kourion stadium to a viewpoint over Episkopi beach.
• Helidonia (Chelidonia) — a 1.4 km loop around the ruins of Chelidonia, a village abandoned after an epidemic in 1840: church walls and houses built of river stone.
• Smigies (long) — 6.8 km through the Akamas forest past abandoned mines and old kilns, with views of both coasts.
• Ezousa — an 8.2 km valley loop near Paphos past the abandoned village of Moro Nero and an old water mill.

Good to know

The trails are free and always open; the archaeological sites beside them are not. Choirokoitia and the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates have their own entrances, tickets and opening hours, so allow time for both the walk and the visit.

Ruins tend to stand in open ground. None of these trails is in our Shady collection, and Apollo Hylates and Choirokoitia take more than twelve hours of direct sun in midsummer. Unfenced walls and mine workings are fragile and sometimes unstable — look, and leave them as they are.