In painting, a pentimento (Italian for ‘repentance’; from the verb pentirsi, meaning ‘to repent’) is “the presence or emergence of earlier images, forms, or strokes that have been changed and painted over”.
Cyprus. The birthplace of Aphrodite. A small island in the eastern Mediterranean, fought over for centuries. Dry across most of its face, yet carrying a history far longer than its coastline.
In sixty years the surface has been repainted many times over — roads over orchards, marinas over fishing harbours, new names over old — but nothing was truly erased. Here, the years give way, and you can see what still lies beneath the streets and shorelines of today.
1963 Aerial Photography by Republic of Cyprus - Department of Lands and Surveys.
Current satellite coverage by Mapbox and Maxar.