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| Cyprus CY£ 20 pounds banknote |
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| Central Bank of Cyprus - Twenty pounds banknote |
Cyprus currency 20 Cypriot pounds banknote of 1992, issued by the Central Bank of Cyprus - Kentriki Trapeza tis Kyproy - Kıbrıs Merkez Bankası.
Cypriot banknotes, Cypriot paper money, Cypriot bank notes, Cyprus banknotes, Cyprus paper money, Cyprus bank notes.Obverse: Upper part of a sculpture of goddess Aphrodite, found in the ancient city of Soli, 1th century BC.; Cyprus map outline.
Reverse: Phoenician sailboat at Kyrenia (4th century BC) and the birthplace of Aphrodite (Petra tou Romiou).
Watermark: Bust of goddess Aphrodite.
Dimensions: 164 x 80 mm.
Cyprus banknotes - Cyprus paper money
The Cyprus Pound, also known as the lira, was the currency of Cyprus, including the Sovereign Base Areas in Akrotiri and Dhekelia, until 31 December 2007, when the Republic of Cyprus (and Malta) adopted the euro.
20£ Cypriot Pounds
Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus.
As with many ancient Greek deities, there is more than one story about her origins. According to Hesiod's Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranus's genitals and threw them into the sea, and she arose from the sea foam (aphros). According to Homer's Iliad, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. According to Plato (Symposium 180e), the two were entirely separate entities: Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos.
Because of her beauty, other gods feared that their rivalry over her would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who, because of his ugliness and deformity, was not seen as a threat. Aphrodite had many lovers—both gods, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis's lover and his surrogate mother. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite.
Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera) and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus) after the two cult sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed to be her place of birth. Myrtle, doves, sparrows, horses, and swans were said to be sacred to her. The ancient Greeks identified her with the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor.
Aphrodite had many other names, such as Acidalia, Cytherea and Cerigo, each used by a different local cult of the goddess in Greece. The Greeks recognized all of these names as referring to the single goddess Aphrodite, despite the slight differences in what these local cults believed the goddess demanded of them. The Attic philosophers of the 4th century, however, drew a distinction between a celestial Aphrodite (Aprodite Urania) of transcendent principles, and a separate, "common" Aphrodite who was the goddess of the people (Aphrodite Pandemos).
Petra tou Romiou
Petra tou Romiou (Rock of the Greek), also known as Aphrodite's Rock, is a sea stack in Pafos, Cyprus. The combination of the beauty of the area and its status in mythology as the birthplace of Aphrodite makes it a popular tourist location.
The sea in this region is generally rough, persuading tourists not to swim there. It is not permitted to climb the rock. A restaurant, a tourist pavilion and the Aphrodite Hills resort are nearby.
According to one legend, this rock is the site of the birth of the goddess Aphrodite, perhaps owing to the foaming waters around the rock fragments, and for this reason it is known as Aphrodite's Rock. Gaia (Mother Earth) asked one of her sons, Cronus, to mutilate his father, Uranus (Sky). Cronus cut off Uranus' testicles and threw them into the sea. A white foam appeared from which a maiden arose, the waves first taking her to Kythera and then bringing her to Cyprus. The maiden, named Aphrodite, went to the assembly of gods from Cyprus. The Romans widely referred to her as Venus. Aphrodite attracted a large cult following in Pafos, which was eventually crushed by the Romans. This is evident from the Sanctuary of Aphrodite in Old Pafos kouklia. A local myth is that any person who swims around the Aphrodite Rock will be blessed with eternal beauty.
Another legend associates the name Achni with the nearby beach, and attributes this to it being a site where the Achaeans came ashore on their return from Troy.
The present name Petra tou Romiou (Rock of the Greek) associates the place with the exploits of the hero Basil as told in the Digenes Akritas. Basil was half-Greek (Romios) and half-Arabic, hence the name Digenes (two-blood). Legend tells that Basil hurled the huge rock from the Troodos Mountains to keep off the invading Saracens. A nearby rock is similarly known as the Saracen Rock.
Soli
Soli or Soloi (Greek: Σόλοι) is an ancient Greek city in the island of Cyprus, located south-west of Morphou and on the coast in the gulf of Morphou and dates back to about the 6th century BC. Since 1974 the city has lain in the de facto Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Originally, Soloi was located, in a much constricted geographical location. At its current location, the whole urban center was designed by Solon, after whom the name is, during his 10 year trip. Soloi was one of the ten city-kingdoms into which Cyprus was divided at the time.
What remains today is mainly from the Roman period, most notably the mosaic floor of the basilica with its wealth of birds, animals and geometric designs and a picture of a swan. There is a theatre but it has been restored so much that it no longer has any atmosphere of its original age.