VILLA PERVOLES
Located in the Pafos (Paphos) region, about 23 km northeast of the town of Pafos, the village of Pano Arodes is stunningly-positioned on the Laona plateau, 590 metres above sea level - at the edge of the Akamas Nature Reserve leading down to the breathtaking Avakas Gorge and the coast.
Immersed in a landscape of vineyards and orchards, the village is tranquil and green, and popular for walks where visitors can discover the various flora and fauna of the area, as well as its little lanes of traditional stone houses.
The village is also religiously significant, thanks to its main church of Pano Arodes, which is believed by some to be the only church in the world dedicated to Agios Kalandionas, who is also the patron saint of the village.
The neighbouring sister-village of Kato Arodes was mainly Turkish Cypriot until the Turkish invasion of 1974 when it was largely abandoned but is slowly beginning to be inhabited again.
Cyprus
The Akamas is a promontory and cape at the northwest extremity of Cyprus with an area of 230 square kilometres. It containes valleys, gorges and wide sandy bays and supports a wide diversity of life including many vulnerable species, some of which are endemic to Akamas. In this spectacular environment there are 168 varieties of birds, 20 different reptiles, 16 species of butterfly and 12 different mammals not to mention its very rich variety of fauna. Wild flowers include cyclamen, turban buttercups, alyssum (Alyssum akamasicum, endemic to Akamas), Cyprus tulip, and many species of orchid, yellow gorse and white rock rose. The Akamas National Park is a truly pictorial part of the island and the wildlife diversity is crucial for the ecology in the Mediterranean.
Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the 3rd largest and 3rd most populous island in the Mediterranean, located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel, north of Egypt, and southeast of Greece. The earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC with plenty of archaeological remains from this period. Settled by Mycenaean Greeks in the 2nd millennium BC, because of its strategic location in the Middle East, it was subsequently occupied by several major powers, including the empires of the Assyrians, Egyptians and Persians before being seized by Alexander the Great. Subsequent rule by Ptolemaic Egypt, the Classical and Eastern Roman Empire, Arab caliphates for a short period, the French Lusignan dynasty and the Venetians, was followed by over three centuries of Ottoman rule between 1571 and 1878 followed by the UK (1878 but formally from 1914). Cyprus was granted independence in 1960 and there then followed decades of Greek/Turkish conflict that is still not formally resolved with the island divided North/South along similar lines. But, this has brought a rich picture to the island. Cyprus has a subtropical climate with very mild winters and warm to hot summers (Snow is possible in the Troodos Mountains where there is a ski resort). Rain occurs mainly in winter, with summer being generally dry. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprus
