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 258

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temple of Paphos, " which would suggest from their appearance that gout was not uncommon even within the temple of Venus. In continuation he writes, page ;2io:— " The great temple of Venus was situated on an eminence, which at present is at a distance of about twenty-five minutes' walk from the sea. Some parts " of its colossal walls are still standing, defying time and the stone-cutter, though bady chipped by the latter. One of the wall-stones measured fifteen feet ten inches in length, by seven feet eleven inches in width and two feet five inches in thickness. The stone is not from Cyprus, but being a kind of blue granite, must have been imported either from Cilicia or from Egypt. " The temple as rebuilt by Vespasian seems to have occupied the same area as the former temple, and was surrounded by a peribolos, or outer wall. Of this a few huge blocks only are now extant. On the west 'side of this outer wall there was a doorway still plainly visible. Its width was seventeen feet nine inches. The two sockets for the bolts upon which ijhe door swung are of the following dimensions : length six inches, width four and a half inches, depth three and a half inches. The south-east wall, I ascertained, by excavating its whole length, was 690 feet long. The length of the west side I could only trace as far as 272 feet, its continuance being hidden beneath the houses of Kouklia. The length of the other two sides I was unable to ascertain for similar reasons. The walls of the temple itself, made of the kind of stone previously mentioned, but not in such huge blocks, I was able to trace correctly, by dint of patience ; and though very little is seen above ground, yet, strange to say, the four corner-stones are still standing. The north-east corner-stone is cased in a house in Kouklia, forming part of its wall ; that of the north-west stands in a cross-street of the village

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