Photos of In the Troodos Mountains, Cyprus

Troodos or Troödos (Τρόοδος in Greek) in the Nicosia District, is the island’s highest mountain range. It is in the centre of Cyprus, and its highest peak is Mount Olympus, at 1,952 metres above sea level. The region is famous for its many Byzantine churches and monasteries.

The Panagia (Monastery) of Kykkos, 20 kilometres west of Pedoulas, is the richest and most famous and, with nine churches, form a World Heritage site. The Holy Monastery of the Virgin of Kykkos was founded around the end of the 11th century by the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118). It lies at an altitude of 1318 metres on the northwest face of the Troodos Mountains. The first President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, started his ecclesiastical career there as a monk in 1926. Three kilometres from Kykkos Monastery is his tomb and a giant bronze statue on the mountain of Throni, a site he chose.

There are lovely mountain villages to the east of Kykkos; Pedoulas, 1,100 metres above sea level, is 15 kilometres northwest of Troodos village. It has the Archangelos Michael church, a small church that was built and decorated in 1474. The Holy Cross Chapel, with its separate and massive 25-meter cross towers above the village. The Agios Ioannis Lambadistis Monastery is in the mountain village of Kalopanayiotis. It is a complex of three churches dating from the 11th century and built over 400 years.