North Cyprus, 7th

by Darke, Diana

• ISBN13: 9781841623726
• ISBN10: 1841623725
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-06-19
• Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides

Summary

Hike up to Buffavento, stroll through the cloisters of Bellapais Abbey or go barefoot on the golden sands of the Karpas Penninsula. Rugged North Cyprus offers charming unspoilt villages, deserted beaches and hidden monasteries - things of the past in the developed south. Revised and expanded, the seventh edition of North Cyprus reveals churches, castles, classical ruins and newly accessible sites. Accompanying this is an entertaining and in-depth overview of the ancient and modern history that has shaped this complex and divided island.

Author Biography

Diana Darke has travelled extensively throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and has worked for many years in Turkey, both sides of Cyprus, and the Middle East. She is the author of Bradt’s Syria, Oman and Eastern Turkey.

Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter 1 Background Information Chapter 2 Practical Information Chapter 3 Girne (Kyrenia) Chapter 4 Lefkosa (Nicosia) Chapter 5 Gazimagusa (Famagusta) Chapter 6 The Karpas Peninsula Appendix 1 Language Appendix 2 Place names Appendix 3 Further Information Index

Excerpts

On Girne:

‘Medieval Girne was a walled town, and today the narrow wiggling streets and alleys behind the harbour still retain a slightly medieval feel, the houses huddled on top of each other. The variety fascinates: one moment you walk past a workshop where wood is crafted into furniture, the next you catch a glimpse into a private arcaded courtyard with tumbling jasmine and bougainvillea. The town walls themselves have been gradually dismantled and incorporated into other buildings, but you will still come across some of the towers, tucked a little incongruously beside a butcher’s shop or a supermarket.’

 

On Sourp Magar Monastery:

‘The atmosphere and superb location, nestling into the crook of the wooded mountains with distant views of the sea, make this monastery an unforgettable spot. Yet as you step down into the terraced courtyard, the desolation that greets you is enough to make you weep. Here in the beauty and silence of the mountains lies this gutted carcass, traces of its former splendour apparent at every turn – in the smashed tiles, the neglected citrus trees and the broken stairways.

Although the last monks left early in the 20th century, a resident guardian ensured, until 1974, that the place was maintained, and it was even possible for visitors and mountain wayfarers to spend the night in the monks’ old rooms. The Armenian community in Nicosia used it as a summer resort, and orphans of the 1895–96 massacres in Turkey were sent here to be educated by the monks. On Sourp Magar’s feast day, the first Sunday in May, the place was the scene of much festivity. The monastery used to own 10,000 donums (a donum is about a third of an acre) of land covered in carob, olive and pine trees, and crops and vegetables were grown on the terracing below, with the help of an elaborately constructed irrigation system. Now abandoned and unguarded, the monastery has been the victim of wanton vandalism. The monastery church has had its altar hacked to pieces and the Armenian tile work, the only decorative ornamentation left here, has been prised off the floor and smashed.’