The Palace of Vouni – even the name has an air of beauty and intrigue.  I’ve been desperate to visit Vouni ever since I first heard about it – and finally I did.

Vouni Palace is in a remote spot, south-west of Morphou in Northern Cyprus. To find it, drive through Morphou and head south towards Gemikonagi (Greek name Karavostasi). Follow the coast road for about 15km as it curves round to the west. Just keep driving and you will see signs to Vouni as the road begins to climb into the mountains.

Vouni Palace sits on top of the tallest hill overlooking Morphou Bay.  I love this aerial photo of it surrounded by mountains – it brings to mind Machu Picchu. Cyprus’s Machu Picchu.

The road twists like a corkscrew round the hill to the top. We got out, bought our tickets and set off to explore. Vouni sits on three terraces and we headed to the upper terrace to take in the view. What’s left of the Athena Shrine lies on this terrace but it was hard to make out what it would have looked like. However, the views south across the Troodos mountains were spectacular. To the east we could see Gemikonagi and the abandoned jetty that gave me such a fright last year. To the west, a road snaked through the mountains to the border crossing at Kato Pyrgos.

We made our way to the middle terrace where the palace stood. What is left of Vouni Palace is walls, steps, courtyards, baths and wells. The site has been well-excavated and it is easy to imagine the size and grandeur of this place before it was destroyed. It is thought that Vouni had 137 rooms! It was initially built by the Persians in 500BC to spy on the nearby city of Soloi (Soli), until Soloi destroyed it in 380BC. Goobie loved playing hide-and-seek in all of the rooms and running up and down the stairs.

We dropped down to the lower terrace, which contains less impressive ruins of various houses. However, it was on this terrace that the Vouni Treasure was discovered. I love a good treasure-finding story! It makes a place feel so . . . Indiana Jones. During excavations in the 1920s/30s, archaeologists found jugs containing gold and silver jewellery and hundreds of coins from Marion, Paphos, Kition and Lapethos – four of the ten city kingdoms of Cyprus. Despite its remote location, the palace was seemingly well-connected. As we left Vouni, I looked back at the massive hill it’s built on and wondered whether it could be hiding more treasure somewhere in its depths.

We weren’t at Vouni for much more than an hour, but it made quite an impression on me. Vouni has a remote, mysterious atmosphere, up there in the sky. Still spying on the world below – much like it used to thousands of years ago when Cyprus was a land of magnificent city kingdoms.