Karpas (Karpaz) Peninsula - Touring: Aphendrika
Beyond Ayios Philon an old dead-end tarmac road leads to Aphendrika in just ten more minutes. There is no habitation at all on this stretch of coastline, and the tarmac turns into dirt track some 400m short of the mined Christian settlement of Aphendrika, where the shells of three churches clustered together can still be easily explored. Silent except for the birdsong and the buzzing of flies echoing in the ruined church, the spot is utterly deserted.
In 200BC, Strabo the Greek historian tells us, Aphendrika was one of the six great cities of Cyprus, and the site is deceptively extensive. Apart from the three churches - Panaghia Chrysiotissa, St George and Asomatos - which date from the 12th and 14th centuries, you should also search for the citadel, set up on the hill east (inland), with many of its rooms cut into the bedrock.
Walking towards the west, you will stumble on the necropolis, a whole area scattered with rock tombs, and the site of a temple beyond it. To the north, a 2km walk across the fields, lies the silted-up harbour of the ancient city, with a lonely sandy beach. The city has never been properly excavated.
From Aphendrika, the furthermost point of road on the north coast, it is 104km back to Kyrenia.