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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 170 View PDF version of this page CAPE ST. ANDREA. 153
V1]
s
upon the walls. The Cathedral of St. Nicholas is a beautiful object in the Gothic style. Although dismantled and converted into a mosque by the Turks, the roof is in good repair, and its magnificent proportions remain, but they are marred by the stopping of the windows with rough stones and mortar. The total length of the cathedral is 172 feet 6^ inches, lengt h of apse (included in above) 30 feet 9 inches ; breadth of apse 32 feet 3 inches ; breadth of cathedral È?4 feet ι inch ; circumference of pillars 15 feet 3 inches, there being 12 pillars in all.
On the outside walls are the marks of various cannon-shot which appear to have been successfully resisted by the soft but tough sedimentary limestone, pwhich is of similar quality to that used in the construction of the fortress. I observed that the impact of the shot has been confined to the immediate neighbourhood of the blow, and that the concussion has not been communicated to the adjoining stone, but has expended itself in crumbling the opposing surface to the depth in which it was eventually imbedded. It would be interesting to try some experiments upon those walls of Famagousta (which may already require repair or alteration) with modern heavy artillery, as should this stone exhibit unusual powers of resistance
it may become valuable. Nothing would be easier than to fire a few rounds from a ship's battery to prove the question. '
The courtyard of an ancient Venetian palace now forms the British parade-ground. This faces the cathedral entrance, and is ornamented by piles of marble cannon-shot, which are upwards of ten inches in diameter; these were the Venetian relics of the siege of 1571.
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