To see as many archaeological sites as
possible, our aim for the five days before our return to Nicosia, we had to rent a car. Driving in Cyprus is on the left,
British-style. Cheaper rates are given
for renting a car with manual transmission rather than automatic. Could I manage a stick shift? My last foray into this was twenty years ago,
during a trip to North Cyprus. I survived then, so why not now? Changing gears, if learned when young, is a
skill that stays with you forever, like riding a bike. Whether the gears are on the right or left of
the driver’s seat matters little, and fortunately, whichever side, first gear
is always upper left, second gear lower left, etc.
The Lion of Venice lands in Larnaca
We were soon on our way to Larnaca on an
excellent highway, driving through an arid landscape studded with conical
hilltops. Larnaca is a good-sized city
on the seacoast.
The beach, extensive and well-tended, is lined by a strip of beach-style
touristic hotels.
KFC and TGI Fridays along the beach at Larnaca
As soon as you
penetrate the streets behind the waterfront, though, you leave the generic and
enter a regular Cypriot town.
At Metro, a large supermarket, I was happy, I must
admit, to find two British staples, both favorites of mine: Marmite (a brown,
yeast-flavored spread) and bitter orange marmalade (this last in both Cypriot
and British brands), virtually impossible to buy in Ankara. Whether they result
from the years of British control of the island (1878-1960) or a large number
of British tourists and residents, I can’t say.
Church of St. Lazarus (right)
Across from our hotel was a handsome
Orthodox church dedicated to Saint Lazarus – the very same Lazarus whom Jesus
raised from the dead (Gospel of John).
According to Orthodox tradition, Lazarus left Palestine for Larnaca (= ancient Citium),
became its first bishop, and ended his days here. Signage is not only in Greek and English but
also in Russian, reflecting the increased number of Russians now visiting Cyprus or even
living there.
In the outer precinct is a
small English cemetery with ornate tombs for members of the English business
community in the early nineteenth century.
Nearby, on the seashore, is a fortress
originally built medieval times. The British used it as a prison. It’s now a museum.
Our main interest, though, was to see remains
of the ancient city. Citium, or Kition, goes back to the Bronze Age. With
French archaeologist Annie Caubet, we visited two main excavation sectors,
Kathari (with temples to Astarte, from the Phoenician period)
Kathari: large ashlar blocks that surround the temple precinct
and Bamboula
(with dry docks for ships, a very unusual find, dating from the Persian period).
We also visited the local archaeological museum, at least the wing that was open,
devoted mostly to ceramics of the Bronze and Iron Ages, and the Pierides
Foundation, a private museum in a restored house of the early nineteenth
century, with a fine collection of antiquities and early modern maps of the
island.
Early 19th century house
(the Pierides Foundation occupies a similar building)
After we left Larnaca, we headed for Hala
Sultan Tekke, a mosque-mausoleum complex in a garden setting with palm trees on
the edge of a large salt lake.
Hala
Sultan (as she is called in Turkish) was the foster mother of the Prophet Muhammad and, according to
tradition, she is buried here. This mausoleum is the most important Muslim
shrine on the island. A busload of tourists, or perhaps pilgrims, was cheerfully
preparing a lunch in one of the common rooms available for visitors.
Near the tekke is a Late Bronze Age town, excavated
since the 1970s by Swedish teams. A notice of the spectacular discovery this
summer of a rich tomb has recently appeared in “Haaretz”: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/1.734913
We didn’t find the site of current
archaeological work, but did see some ancient wall fragments protected below an
outlying building of the mausoleum complex.
After a short stop at Kiti to see an
early Byzantine apse mosaic, we drove to Khirokitia, a Neolithic settlement, seventh
millennium BC, well-known for its round houses, made of stone, built on a steep
slope.
But first, we needed lunch. We missed the restaurant recommended by Annie
Caubet, having arrived by a minor road from Kiti, not the main highway, and so
ended in a bakery eating oversized rolls, one stuffed with pumpkin and raisins,
the other with a bit of halloumi (hellim, in Turkish), a salty, rubbery
white cheese beloved by both Greek and Turkish Cypriots. To drink, I picked airani, because it’s the same word as Turkish ayran, a diluted yogurt drink, slightly salty, of which I am very
fond. This airani turned out to be sour sheep’s milk with lots of mint, not at
all like the Turkish ayran. I burped
unpleasantly for several hours after.
Our last visit of the day was Amathus,
just east of Limassol. Phoenicians were there in the Iron Age, which is the
main reason I wanted to see it. Moreover, Richard the Lionheart, king of England, passed
through in 1191. He defeated the Byzantines to take possession of the island
(soon passed on to Guy de Lusignan, a French crusader whose family would rule
Cyprus for the next 300 years), and either in Amathus or nearby Limassol he
married Berengaria of Navarre, whose family’s kingdom, Navarre, was adjacent to
his own territory of Aquitaine.
We identified the location of this ancient
city and obtained some idea of its topography, but the ruins of Amathus were a
disappointment. Stone foundations of Hellenistic
and especially Roman imperial houses and other buildings spread monotonously
across the lower hillside with few concessions for visitors: no paths indicated
through the ruins and few signs to explain what we were looking at.
The harbor
was not at all evident, but coastlines do change over the centuries. Above, a prominent hill was surely the
location of the Temple
of Aphrodite, the city’s most
important cult, but no information about this hilltop or how to get there was
posted
We returned to the highway and drove on
to Limassol (aka Lemesos, the Greek name used today) to our very attractive
hotel, Nikis House, in an outlying district on the slopes above the city
proper, with the sea visible in the distance. The owner had lived here as a
young girl. The family kept the house after they moved downtown, and now it has
been refurbished as a quiet, attractive guest house.
The room was equipped with
a stove and refrigerator, so, although the guest house did not offer breakfast,
with a short walk to a local bakery and market, we were ready with instant
coffee, milk, and a tahin böreği (Turkish
for a large sweet roll with tahini and sugar) for the next morning.
(to
be continued)
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