Until recently, Makronissos was just a place we drove through on the way to Ayia Napa. But with some of the Napa hotels closed this summer, we booked a four-day stay at the Makronissos Holiday Village and got the chance to explore the area.
This is a great place for young families. We booked a one-bedroom self-catered apartment and the children slept on sofa beds in the lounge. It was clean and practical and pretty cheap at under €100 a night.
The Makronissos Holiday Village is on a sprawling site and there’s quite a walk from reception. At the centre is a large, shallow pool with a jacuzzi and toddler pool nearby. This was perfect for us. As the pool was shallow, we didn’t need to be in it with Herc the whole time. So while Goobie and Herc played, we actually managed to grab some time to read on the sunloungers, with a cocktail and pizza from the pool restaurant.
Many local restaurants were closed but the Garden of Eden restaurant next door was open, offering discounts for Holiday Village residents. The food was great too.
We went out to explore the area. The Ayia Napa WaterWorld park is just down the road but since we’d bought season tickets for Fasouri Waterpark, we gave it a miss. Instead we explored the whale-tail peninsula.
Despite COVID-19, the main Makronissos beach was rammed! It’s a pretty spot, covered in gorgeous soft white sand. And also a gazillion sunbeds. Anyone who’s followed the blog for a while will know that I’m not fussed about sunbed-beaches. Instead we followed a path further along the peninsula to look for a better spot.
On the western side of the peninsula is The Dome beach, which I preferred the look of. But it was a windy day and this beach wasn’t as sheltered. The waves looked too rough for Herc.
Instead, we continued along the pathway heading towards the end of the peninsula. Halfway along, the path branched out onto a small beach behind the Makronissos water sports centre. There were sunbeds but not as many. We settled there.
Goobie and I went for a snorkel. The visibility wasn’t great in the windy conditions but it cleared in deeper water. There wasn’t a huge amount to see but, suddenly, from under the hull of a moored boat, two alien creatures swam past, their bodies luminescent. They were squid, the first I’d ever seen. Awesome.
At the far end of the peninsula is the Makronissos Archaeological Park, filled with 19 tombs from the Hellenistic and Roman times (323 BCE – 324 AD). These tombs were excavated in 1989 and one of the sarcophagi found is in the Thalassa Museum in Ayia Napa.
Most of the tombs are very similar, with stepped walkways, called the dromos, leading to the tombs. Originally a large slab would have covered the entrance.
Inside, the tombs have a central rectangular trench surrounded by a number of benches dug out of the rock. It is on these benches that the sarcophagi would rest, covered by three flat tiles. Each tomb could house between three and five sarcophagi.
Apparently there is a small sanctuary (temple) nearby, but I couldn’t find it. Perhaps I mistook it for something else. Nonetheless, the archaeological park is an interesting place to explore if you are in the area.
At the very end of the peninsula on the eastern side, we found The Special Place. You reach it by following the path past the archaeological park, up a slope and all the way to the end. Here you find yourself surrounded by razor-sharp rocks and a view across a very unique-looking area.
It looks like a lunar landscape and is enclosed by large rocky walls. An inland lake runs along one side, formed by waves breaking on the rocks. It has an utterly distinctive atmosphere.
This place was a quarry in ancient times. Along its western side are signs of tombs nearly destroyed by the quarrying.
If you look out to the east you can see Ayia Napa. The twinkling lights of the funfair come on as the sky grows darker.
We’ve visited this place twice, both during the Golden Hour before sunset when the place is bathed in soft orange light. It takes on a magical quality at this time of day, making me feel such a strong connection to the past that I could almost see the ancient Romans working, living and dying here.
This place is special. It joins Aiva Arch and the Akamas as an area that touches me in a powerful, indefinable way.
On our second visit, we brought a bottle of wine and sat down in The Special Place to enjoy the sunset. Rays of orange, pink and purple shot across the sky above our heads.
For me, this is what Makronissos is all about. Beneath the noise of hotels, sunbeds, tourists and jet-skis, there’s this place on the tail of a whale where past and present touch for one fleeting hour at the end of the day.
It’s a lovely area, one I’ve explored many times with my boys, mainly out of season – the beaches are lovely too then as all the sunbeds go!
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