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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 166 View PDF version of this page fortress is about 4000 yards ; the shape is nearly a parallelogram. The fosse varies in depth and width, but the minimum of the former is twenty-five feet, and of the width eighty feet, but in some places it exceeds one hundred and forty. This formidable ditch is cut out of the solid rock, which is the usual calcareous sedimentary limestone, and the stone thus obtained has been used in the construction of the walls. The rock foundation would render all mining operations extremely difficult. The fire from the ramparts is increased by cavaliers of great size and strength, capable of mounting numerous heavy guns at a superior altitude. The only entrance from the land side is at the south-west corner ; this is exceedingly striking, as the fosse is about 140 feet wide, the scarp and counterscarp almost perpendicular, being cut from the original rock.
A narrow stone bridge upon arches spans this peculiar ditch, the communication depending upon a double drawbridge and portcullis. Immediately facing the entrance outside the fortress is an old Turkish churchyard, through and above which the closed masonry aqueduct is conducted into the town. Following the course of the aqueduct along a straight line of sandy heights which somewhat resemble a massive railway embankment, we arrived at a mosque in which is the venerated tomb of the Turkish soldier who first planted the flag upon the walls of Famagousta when captured, in 15 7 1, from the Venetians. This tomb is in a small chamber within the building and is covered with green silk, embroidered ; but as the city was never taken by assault, and capitulated upon honourable terms after a protracted defence, the fact of establishing the Turkish flag upon the walls after their
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