The Tombs of Kings necropolis located in the Cyprus city of Paphos still surprises with the technical solutions used in its construction.
This necropolis has nothing to do with kings and other crowned persons, but is the burial place of noble people who found their rest here in the period from the IV century BC to the II century AD. At the same time, at least one representative of the Egyptian dynasty of the Ptolemies was also buried here, as indicated by the generic symbol carved on the wall of the tomb - a two-headed eagle. But this is rather an exception to the rule.
"Tombs of the Kings" - if not a city of the dead, then certainly a town. And this is not a turn of speech, because some representatives of the nobility were buried in the most real houses and estates, however, located below the surface of the earth. According to archaeologists, the deceased was erected exactly the same housing that he owned during his lifetime, which required colossal costs, both financial and physical. 500 years before the birth of Jesus Christ, there was no heavy construction equipment, and everything had to be done by hand. However, some stone blocks have clear traces of machining, so one cannot exclude the use of mechanisms, the principle of which one can only guess.
Despite the fact that most of the tombs were plundered in ancient times, the burial objects themselves are well preserved. For many years they were in an abandoned state, and the Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Venetians and Turks, who ruled in Cyprus at different times, showed no interest in the necropolis. Local residents generally preferred to bypass it, which is understandable and understandable - the energy of this place still evokes a depressing feeling among overly impressionable tourists.
In 1871, Cyprus passed to the British, and only after that began a serious study of the "Tombs of the Kings". A number of British explorers and enthusiasts dug up and cleared several graves, but found nothing of interest. It took another hundred years before large-scale excavations took place in the necropolis under the auspices of the Cypriot authorities and UNESCO. This organization inscribed the "Tombs of the Kings" on the World Cultural Heritage List, like the entire city of Paphos.
Currently, archaeologists have explored most of the necropolis, but there are still small areas, excavations on which have yet to be carried out. Most of the objects are open for review, but some of the underground structures are inaccessible, and only specialists can get there. The most interesting are the two "posthumous houses", which became the last refuge for some very noble persons. Unfortunately, history has not preserved their names and titles. The first burial is a full-fledged house carved in sandstone, while the second is more reminiscent of an ancient Roman villa with an inner courtyard, columns and separate rooms.
Of course, both burials are located below the surface of the earth, and one can only be amazed at what colossal work was done many centuries ago. The craftsmanship of the stone blocks is impressive, as is the art of stone carvers. Only a very developed civilization could carve out huge cavities in the rock, make the necessary calculations and create "posthumous houses" that survived 2500 years later. Lacking construction equipment, computer programs, concrete and even something comparable to a modern entrenching tool, ancient architects and builders created structures in front of which their colleagues from the 21st century would take off their hats.
Promotional video:
When many researchers argue that a highly developed civilization existed on Earth 2500-3000 years ago, this is readily believed. If the ancient rulers of Cyprus created such "dwellings" for the dead, then one can only guess what they built for living people. Unfortunately, many secrets of ancient civilizations have been lost forever. For example, one of the mysteries of the Paphos Archaeological Park, which once was one with the Tombs of the Kings, is an incomprehensible tunnel about 15 meters long and 5 meters high. It would easily fit a subway car, but why and how it was made more than two thousand years ago is a mystery. There are many such secrets not only in Paphos, but throughout Cyprus. Only fragments and remains of a once great civilization have survived to this day, the level of which some countries and regions have not yet reached.
Unfortunately, tourism has caused significant damage to the historical part of Paphos. The western coast began to be actively built up with hotels, roads and other infrastructure began to be built. And although the opinion of archaeologists was taken into account in the construction of this or that object, rather large territories were assigned to hotel complexes. "Tombs of the Kings" were sandwiched between two hotels: it is not known how many artifacts were lost during their construction. There is no clear border at the necropolis, and some burials can be seen at a very significant distance from the main complex of tombs. At the same time, it is tourists who bring the main income to both the necropolis and the Paphos archaeological park - tens of thousands of people visit them per year, which gives a good increase to the city's budget. All this allows maintaining unique objects in good condition and preserving the unique architecture of this one-of-a-kind "city of the dead".
Alexander Plekhanov