| Let us open the book of North Cypriot history
at Guzelyurt and its neighbors on the west coast, then go
northeast to the Girne region. We will then go south along
the bay to the Salamis area.
North Cyprus Archeological Sites near
Guzelyurt
St. Mamas is the patron saint of tax evaders.
He was a hermit in the 12th century who refused to pay taxes.
As soldiers were bringing him to the Byzantine authorities,
the party saw a lion attack a lamb. St. Mamas saved the lamb
and rode into town on the lion. Suitably impressed, the authorities
waived his taxes. The monastery named for him was built in
the 18th century, partly on Byzantine ruins, and using the
doors and columns of an earlier Gothic church. The upper part
of the iconostasis is a wonderful wood carving from the 16th
century. Two holes in the St. Mamas’ sarcophagus ooze
a substance which is said to be a protection against both
stormy seas and diseases of the eye and ear.
The second floor of the Archeology and Nature Museum at Guzelyurt
shows you artifacts from the Late Bronze Age through the Ottoman
era of North Cyprus. Room 1 has Neolithic and Bronze Age artifacts.
Rooms 2 and 3 are devoted to finds from Toumba tou Scourou
(1600-1500 B.C.). Notice the pottery with its white background
and added decoration. Further displays show relics of the
later history of North Cyprus, through the Byzantine period.
Don’t miss the 2nd century A.D. statue of Artemis that
was found near Salamis. Like Artemis of Ephesus, she is the
Great Mother, not the virgin huntress.
The foundations of Soli date to about 1100
B.C. It paid tribute to the Assyrian Empire and then to the
Persians. In 498 B.C. many Cypriot city-states rose against
the Persians, Soli among them. The revolt failed and Soli
was taken by the Persians. Soli had a good water supply and
rich soil; it was close to copper mines and timber for smelting;
and, it had a protected harbor. These factors brought the
city prosperity through Roman times. Soli’s copper industry
produced so much waste (slag) that a modern mining company
finds it profitable to extract the last bit of copper from
the slag. But by the 4th century A.D., the harbor had silted
up and the copper mines were exhausted. When you visit the
site, you will see the Roman-era theater, built around 300
A.D. The low limestone wall separated the orchestra from the
spectators. The theater accommodated 4000 people on seats
now partly restored. West of the theater were temples of Isis
and Aphrodite. On the Acropolis, above the theater, stood
a royal palace. A paved, column-lined street dated to Hellenistic
times leads to the paved Agora. A three-tiered fountain was
dedicated to the nymphs.
The Basilica at Soli was one of the oldest on Cyprus, built
between 350 and 400 A.D. The original church was bout 200
meters long. Three doors led into a vestibule which opened
on an atrium with a fountain. Another set of three doors led
into the church proper. You can see the bases of twelve huge
columns which separated the nave from the aisles. Mosaics
once covered the floor. In general, the purely geometric mosaics
are earlier than those which show figures, such as the swan
with flowers and dolphins you can find in the nave. These
mosaics are considered one of the glories of North Cyprus.
Vouni is
a palace built by the pro-Persian king of Marion to keep watch
on pro-Greek Soli. Within its 137 rooms were garrison quarters,
apartments for the ruler and his officials, storerooms, and
baths. After 449 B.C. when the Greeks established their rule,
a second story was added by the new, pro-Greek, ruler of Marion.
The pro-Persian versus pro-Greek conflict simmered for generations.
The people of Soli burned the palace in 380 B.C. and it was
never rebuilt. The original entrance was on the southwest.
Through the porch you enter a main room. An inner hall has
connected rooms on either side. Seven wide steps led to a
courtyard with columns and rooms on three sides. You can see
the cisterns cut into the mountain and storerooms. The holes
in the storeroom floors held the amphorae – large jars.
In the northwest corner of the palace was a toilet. On the
north side were more storerooms and one of the earliest known
hot baths. The pro-Greek ruler built a new entrance with a
stairway direct to the central courtyard. When the site was
excavated, a fire-blackened clay pot was found to hold gold
and silver bracelets, silver bowls, and hundreds of coins.
If you go south from the palace along the top of the hill,
you can find a temple of Athena built about 425 B.C. Two courtyards
lead to the sacred enclosure (temenos). In the temenos you
can find traces of the holes that secured statues.
Between Guzelyurt and Kyrenia is the open-air Late Bronze
Age sanctuary at Pigadhes.
The double-horned altar is 12 feet high and stands on 4 steep
steps. Once a low wall surrounded the altar precinct and well.
Beyond you can trace the low foundation walls of various outbuildings.
North Cyprus Sites near Girne
Castles built or expanded by the Crusaders circle Girne.
Perhaps the most beautiful is Bellapais Abbey,
founded about 1200 by monks who fled Jerusalem when Saladin
captured it. The refectory (dining hall) and cloisters you
see were built between 1324 and 1359 and may be the best Gothic
architecture in the Near East. But matters took a downhill
course as the monks became lax and immoral. Building maintenance
stopped. By 1565, the Venetian governor of Cyprus reported
the monks had female companions, and would only admit their
own sons as monks. It is said the village of Bellapais is
inhabited by their descendants. When the Turks came in 1570,
they expelled the monks and gave the buildings to the Greek
Orthodox Church. You might be able to take in a concert or
play in the restored refectory. The old church was built on
the foundations of an earlier (probably Byzantine) larger
church. This is the village Lawrence Durrell described in
Bitter Lemons.
St. Hilarion Castle was named for a hermit
who fled the Holy Land and lived in a cave here. The Byzantines
had a church and monastery in the 10th century. After 1232,
the Crusading Lusignans expanded the structure and used it
as a summer castle. You can see three different building levels.
The oldest (lowest) is Byzantine, where the garrison soldiers
and the horses were housed. There is also a Byzantine chapel.
The arches on the apse have the typically Byzantine narrow
red bricks held with wide bands of mortar. The middle complex
included the church and the royal residence. The courtyard
of the upper castle also has royal rooms on its east side
and cisterns, kitchens, and waiting rooms on the west. The
tallest part is “Prince John’s Tower,” named
for Prince John of Antioch. Elanor of Aragon thought he took
part in the murder of her husband, his brother, King Peter
I. Elanor hatched a devious plot to avenge her husband. She
convinced John that his bodyguards were plotting against him.
John threw them out of a window of this tower, one by one.
When Elanor knew John was alone, she and her followers attacked
and killed him.
The Buffavento Castle is not as well preserved
as St. Hilarion, but has dramatic views of North Cyprus. The
Byzantines began construction with a watchtower. You can see
the same narrow red brick with wide bands of mortar on the
arched window of the watchtower as in the apse of St. Hilarion’s
chapel. The Crusaders added the other levels. The old jousting
yard is now used as a firing range by the Turkish Army. You
may not photograph that area. From the top of the castle you
can see the other two castles, the Mediterranean, Famigusta
and the east coast, and the Mesarya Plain. Take a moment to
go way back in time, when that plain was so thickly wooded
the Neolithic farmers avoided it.
Kantara Castle is at the base of the Karpaz
peninsula. Like the other two castles, Kantara began as a
Byzantine lookout and was enlarged in the 12th century by
the Lusignan kings. The current structure was built by James
I, the brother of that John who threw his bodyguard out the
window at Buffavento. The Lusignans gained control of Cyprus,
which had been part of the Byzantine Empire, in the following
way. During the Crusades, a Byzantine governor, Isaac Comnenos,
had set himself up as Emperor of Cyprus. He was a rebel against
the Byzantine Empire and a hated despot. Richard the Lionhearted
was on the way to the Holy Land when a storm wrecked part
of his fleet near Cyprus. When the survivors managed to reach
shore, Isaac robbed them. He kept Berengaria, Richard’s
fiancée, and her party from food and water. Furious,
Richard captured Cyprus in 1191. He turned it over to the
Templars, who sold it to Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem.
Girne (Kyrenia) itself was founded in the
10th Century B.C. by Phoenicians, but was not very important
until first the Romans, then the Byzantines fortified the
town. You can visit the Byzantine castle with its additions
by the Lusignans and the Venetians. Several rooms of the castle
are dedicated to historical displays, including a Neolithic
room and an exhibit of a Byzantine tomb. But you must step
back to the days of Alexander the Great at the Shipwreck Museum.
The ship was carrying 400 amphorae of Rhodian wine, almonds
and olives. It’s about 15 meters long. Stored under
the stern deck were food, spare parts, and a sacrificial basin.
Four sets of dishes attest the crew, but no personal items
have been found. Iron spearheads in the hull suggest the ship
was attacked by pirates, who took any valuable cargo and the
crew.
The Ptolemaic cemetery at Girne was used into Roman times.
You can see the rock-cut tombs from some of the hotels. Also
visible are the remains of the Roman wall.
Archeologists began excavating the Neolithic village at Vrysi
in 1969. The people used white pottery, and plastered the
inside walls of their homes. They had rush mats on the floor;
lamps and the hearth fire lit the windowless homes. The dead
were buried under the house floor. Cat bones have been found
in the litter, perhaps they were pets as well as mousers.
Vounari is east of Girne, near Mersinlik.
The site dates at least from the Middle Bronze Age, but may
also contain artifacts from as early as the Neolithic and
as late as the Byzantine. It was a small sanctuary, with some
remains of houses. You can still see where an expedition from
Columbia University exposed some of the walls. As with all
archeological sites in any country, do not remove anything
from the site, and do not try to dig up anything on your own.
If you find something you think is old, notify the local police,
who can pass the information on to the proper authorities.
Vounous is the site of an Early Bronze Age
cemetery. The Early Bronze Age is defined by the beginnings
of copper mining and smelting. It began in the river valleys
north of the Troodos Mountains and spread throughout the island.
Though metallurgy was more and more important, agriculture
was the mainstay of the economy. The ox-drawn plow and the
donkey were introduced, revolutionizing agriculture. At Vounous
the dead were buried with copper or bronze tools and red polished
pottery similar to contemporary wares found in Turkey. Some
late graves have pottery models showing scenes of everyday
life.
Seven thousand years ago, the farmers of Cape Apostolos Andreas
(Kastros) on the Karpasia peninsula had not
yet discovered pottery. They shaped shallow bowls and pots
from stone and tools from flint. They cultivated wheat, barley,
lentils, and peas and gathered wild pistachios, figs, and
olives. They herded cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs and hunted
deer in the dense forests. Notice how difficult it is to reach
the settlement, on the steep side of the promontory. The farmers’
small, round houses were only about nine feet across with
a hearth, stones for grinding grain, and dug-out storage bins.
The thin stone walls probably supported a timber or thatch
roof. Groups of houses on small platforms surround central
courtyards. Elsewhere on Cyprus at this time, people buried
their dead beneath the house floor. At Kastros, the only burial
found was near, but outside, the house. A gift of shell beads
accompanied the body.
North Cyprus Archeological Sites near
Famagusta
Enkomi was
founded in the Middle Bronze Age (1900-1600 B.C.) as a copper-smelting
and trading city. The early town was built around irregular
open spaces. Around 1200 B.C., the city was destroyed and
then rebuilt. The new Enkomi was larger and had a definite
plan, with a main street running north-south, and avenues
going east-west. The massive perimeter wall enclosed an area
of about 400 x 350 meters. Older structures, even tombs, were
covered or removed. The ashlar masonry with its large, finely
cut blocks, is found elsewhere on Cyprus and also in Syria.
As at Toumba tou Scourou, houses and chambered tombs were
in the south part of the city; potters’ workshops and
store houses in the north. A major catastrophe struck the
town and its people moved east to establish Salamis.
You might begin your tour of Salamis at Cellarka,
the large cemetery a few miles west of the town site. A museum
there shows some of the finds, and can put the various periods
into perspective. The necropolis was used from the Iron Age
to the Hellenistic era. The Iron Age tombs at Salamis were
rich in grave goods. The "royal tombs" held gold
and silver jewelry, imported Egyptian jewelry and imported
pottery both from the Greek isles and from Syria-Palestine.
Horses were sacrificed and, with their chariots, accompanied
the dead. Assyrian political control is reflected in the many
Near Eastern artistic motifs, but the horse burials are straight
from a Homeric epic. A typical middle-class tomb complex was
cut into the bedrock and had a stepped, walled, entry. The
dead rested on stone couches, or directly on the floor. Grave
goods might include pottery, lamps, mirrors, jewelry, coins,
and figurines. The tombs were used over and over again, so
only the last-buried skeleton is intact.
The remains of the city of Salamis are extensive.
You will find the Temple of Zeus, which dates to the late
Hellenistic period, but which began with the founding of the
city during the 11th century B.C. Most of the remaining ruins
are from the Roman period. Visit the "heart" of
the city at is northernmost part. The amphitheater and gymnasium
have been extensively restored. The colonnade at the gymnasium
has columns of different sizes, brought together after an
earthquake in the 4th century destroyed much of the city.
You will see the baths, a 44-seat public latrine, and mosaics.
Part of the harbor wall survives, as does the Greek and Roman
agora. Near the agora is a large cistern which stored water
brought by aqueduct.
The Basilica of St. Epiphanios has been excavated as has
a nearby house which may have belonged to the Bishop of Salamis.
These date from the early 4th century A.D., when Emperor Constantine
helped Salamis rebuild after an earthquake.
Just outside the city is the Basilica and Monastery of St.
Barnabas, named for the companion of St. Paul. Don't miss
the museum here with its glorious icons and archeological
treasures from North Cyprus.
First known as Arsinoe, a foundation of Ptolomy Philadelphus
when Cyprus was ruled by Egypt, then as Ammochostos during
Byzantine times, Famagusta (Gazimagusa) became
wealthy and famous as a Crusader city. After the Christians
lost Acre in Palestine in 1291, all east-west trade funneled
through Famagusta and it became fabulously rich. The wall
and most of the churches were built in the 13th century A.D.
But the prosperity did not last. In 1373 the Genoese sacked
the city, ruining its polyglot merchant community. In the
16th century, the Venetians tried to restore the city, but
it fell to the Turks in 1571. In the southwest of the walled
city, you can see the guardhouses, storerooms, and gun emplacements
the Venetians built. From this, the Rivettina Bastion, the
Venetians surrendered to the Ottomans in 1571, after a 10-month
siege. Othello's tower is a must see. Christoforo Moro, governor
of the city in 1508 when it was under Venetian rule, inspired
Shakespeare's Othello. As the story goes, he murdered his
faithless wife, Desdemona, in the Othello tower. We know that
the tower was a citadel and that it was Venetian (see the
winged lion above the door). The Lala Mustapha mosque was
originally the cathedral of St. Nicholas, consecrated in 1326.
It is a superb example of Gothic architecture, modeled on
the Cathedral at Rheims. Across the square was the Venetian
palace. Empty and haunting are the ruins of St. George of
the Greeks, combining Byzantine and Gothic elements, and of
St. George of the Latins, using stones from a Roman temple
at Salamis. The Church of Sts. Peter and Paul has Gothic arches,
stained glass windows, and flying buttresses seemingly superimposed
on the weightier Byzantine style. It attests the wealth of
Famagusta in its heyday. An inscription tells us a wealthy
Syrian trader, Simone Nostrano, built the church in 1360 from
the profits of a single venture.
Copyright 2006 SeaTerra
For a non copyrighted version of this article which can be
reprinted please go to North
Cyprus Sites - A Living Time Tunnel
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