Troodos, Mt.Olympus

After a week down by the coast the winding roads up into the Troodos Mountains were a blessed relief. Gone was the fungal spread of ‘Villa-Land’, little boxes all made out of ticky-tacky. Instead characterful villages of weathered homes with red-tiled roofs leapt down the slopes as the road switch-backed. Clouds huddled above the peaks like sheep round a trough. The temperature dropped noticeably as we climbed and the air was scented with the aroma of pine resin. And then, one after another, the signs appeared, all with an unmistakable logo. My wife glanced at me suspiciously. “Considering you told me that we weren’t going to visit a World Heritage Site there certainly seem to be a lot of Unesco signs around.” One day I’ll have to tell her about the Tentative List…

It is now 21 years since Cyprus gained a new WHS. And it’s hard to see an obvious contender for World Heritage status from their existing Tentative List. Cyprus’s T List is a bit of mess, to be honest. It’s existing three World Heritage Sites are strong (particularly Paphos and the Painted Churches of the Troodos Region in my view). Of the 11 locations listed one is an extension to an existing site (Painted Churches in the Troodos Region) and of the others six have a Description on the Unesco website stating “NB – This site has to be considered as part of the Troodos ophiolite, a 90 million year old fragment of extremely well-preserved oceanic …