People's fascinaton for something inexplicable is always potent. Ghosts, spirits, poltergeist, Yeti, Big Foot, even the Loch Ness Monster and of course aliens always creates curiousity. Lately, religious visions like that of Christ’s face on a Marmite lid or Christ’s face on a windscreen all make the papers. All are a matter of faith of course, either you see it and believe, or you don’t.

On the island of Cyprus, the celebrated birthplace of the Goddess Aphrodite, one such phenomenon was discovered, though it has taken some twenty years to make public.

The image no less compelling than that of any spiritual sighting is in this case a little more plausible, as it is in the very place where legend says the goddess Aphrodite was born, at the site of known in Cyprus as Petra Tou Romiou. This image in many ways actually gives credence to her legend; which flies in the face of the scholars, who have no record of the goddess’s true origin as t was recorded only in classical verse or text. Even the famous Botticelli Masterpiece of Aphrodite rising from the water in a sea shell has no reference in the depiction or site. So the legend is, what it is, just a legend!

Or is it?

The discovery some twenty years ago was made by an English man Myron Edwards on holiday with his future wife Niki and it was when they visited the restaurant that overlooks the rocks and the remarkable epiphany moment occurred. What he saw that day stayed with him for years to come and it was only when he moved to Cyprus some seven years ago that he realised the time was right to tell people about what he had seen.

So he wrote a book about it and published it. The Mistress of the Rock which was soon picked up and turned into a Greek version, but what he needed was to show the image of what he had seen to show others, hoping that they would see it too! Aerial photographer Denny Rowland provided just the sort of miracle he had searched for with a series of shots taken from the air of the rocks. In two of those shots he found what he needed.

The image of the goddess or what could be taken as a female figure in the water at the rocks. The very place where she is said to have been born and where for five thousand years she had lain undiscovered until Mr Edwards saw her.

If indeed the image is that of the Goddess the implications for the story become enormous, the Goddess of Love preserved in stone in the waters where she was born, has a mystical and almost magical appeal for the visitor to the site and for the island itself an incredible commercial opportunity. No wonder why then that one particular English film company Irishadows Film Productions is putting out investor portfolios to make sure that this story becomes a movie. Darren Power Producer is confident that the movie would be an international hit as it combines elements of the Da Vinci Code against a backdrop of Greek culture and heritage so beloved in films like My Big Fat Greek Wedding another box office success. Greek Gods and legends are big business as witnessed by the success of 300, Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief and the latest version of Clash of the Titans.

The message of the Goddess if made into a movie would then have global connotations and the island of Cyprus would find itself the centre of attention and not just because of its political status. Edwards states in his book, “If one person comes to this island because of this story, I have done my job; if 10,000 or more come the Gods have done theirs.” Perhaps one goddess in particular may have a say in that matter.

Either way the image of Aphrodite is there ! If you believe it or not that is up to you.