Thursday, September 30

Larnaca, Cyprus.  Beautiful clear day but hot, hot, hot! Still haven’t seen any birds. I did hear some twittering in trees at Lefkara during my tour, but none at the port.

Larnaca is the 3rd largest city on the island of Cyprus. I and most of the passengers I talked to were surprised at the size of the city (population about 75,000). We had been expecting something much smaller. It is built on the ruins of Kition, a city state originally established by the Phoenicians about 1200 B.C. There were inhabitants of Cyprus long before that, but they hadn’t much in the way of an organized civilization.

Touring out of Larnaca we passed the 10th century Church of St. Lazarus which was built atop his tomb (the second time he died). His tomb was found in 890 A.D. with the inscription “Lazarus, bishop of Larnaca, Four days dead. Friend of Jesus.” At the village of Kiti we visited the lovely little Panagia Angeloktisti (“angel built”) Church with a 6th century mosaic of the Virgin Mary salvaged from the original construction. From there we went to Choirokoitia to visit a UNESCO World Heritage archeological site. The ruins there (see photo) date from 6800 B.C. The actual ruins are up a very steep hill, but there are some reconstructed houses lower down to show what the settlement would have looked like. They are round, built of stone with a log framework inside, and remind one of a Navajo hogan.

Next we went through several small villages to stop at Pano (“upper”) Lefkara. There is also a Kato, or “lower,” Lefkara. This is an incredibly vertical village where you are amazed that even one tourist bus can navigate the narrow twisty streets, much less five tourist buses! The women of Lefkara make wonderful lace and embroidered linens called Lefkaritkia. They also do a great deal of silver work there. Then we headed back to the ship.

Overall, my impression of Cyprus is an extremely dry limestone island with a magnificent road system. Lots of olive groves and carob groves, but not much other agriculture that I saw. The parts I did see were interesting, and from what I learned from our excellent guide it appears that there are lots of other interesting areas to visit also.

One bit of history (although Cyprus has more than its share of history, both ancient and modern). When Constantine’s mother, St. Helena, was returning from the Holy Land, her fleet stopped at Cyprus to wait out some bad weather. They were here about a month, during which time she decided that, because there had been a long drought and the people were in sad straights and there were too many snakes around, the island needed cats (there had been cats here even before the Egyptians began worshiping them, but were none left). She sent one of her ships back to Lebanon to bring several hundred cats to Cyprus. The descendants of those cats still live here, and during the British period of the island’s history, the British established a sanctuary for cats at Cape Gata that is still in operation. At Choirokoitia there were at least a half dozen small, slender white and beige cats that evidently reside at the ticket booth. Several were friendly enough that we tourists could pet them.

Why are ships’ railings always at the exact height to block your view of everything when you are sitting down?