HISTORY ETHNOGRAPHY NATURE WINE-MAKING SITE MAP
Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 39

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It is a melancholy neighbourhood. A few graves tha had been robbed were open, forming pitfalls for the unwary ; other yawning holes had discovered ancient tombs by the soakage of a recent heavy shower, which had washed in the roof and exposed the cavity. W passed a small mosque where there is the tomb of a saint many feet below the level of the surface, and we shortly came in view of the salt lake about a mile and three-quarters from the town of Larnaca. W e halted about two miles from the town upon the high ground to admire the aqueduct which crosses the valley from the village of Cheflik Pacha. This is a very important work. The masonry is about thirty-six feet above the lowest portion of the valley, which it spans in thirty-two arches, covering a distance of about four hundred and twenty yards from height to height. The water flows in an open canal of cement along the surface, but upon the ground level it is protected by a covering of stone and lime, until it reaches the town of Larnaca. A stream of fresh water flows through the valley beneath the arches of the aqueduct, at a right angle, and is artificially separated from the salt lake below by means of a dyke of earth which conducts it direct to the sea. This was rendered necessary by the floods of the rainy seasons, which carried so large a volume of fresh water into the lake as to resist the power of evaporation during the summer months. The salt lakes of Larnaca are several miles in extent, and are computed by the late British consul, Mr. Watkins, to possess a productive power of 20,000,000 okes (2J lbs.) per annum. M. Gaudry, in his clever work upon Cyprus, attributes the formation of salt to the fact of the sea-water percolating through the sand, and thus filling the lake;—this theory is

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