Paphos has been inhab­it­ed since the Neolith­ic peri­od. It was a cen­tre of the cult of Aphrodite and of pre-Hel­lenic fer­til­i­ty deities. Aphrodite‘s leg­endary birth­place was on this island, where her tem­ple was erect­ed by the Myce­neans in the 12th cen­tu­ry B.C. The remains of vil­las, palaces, the­atres, fortress­es and tombs mean that the site is of excep­tion­al archi­tec­tur­al and his­toric val­ue. The mosaics of Nea Paphos are among the most beau­ti­ful in the world.