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.
 
 
 
 
uses Google technology and indexes only and selectively internet - libraries having books with free public access
 
  Previous Next  

SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 215

View PDF version of this page

by a passage which led into a quadrangular courtyard! of grass we emerged into an imposing portion of thea ruin which commanded the west face. This was a wall built upon the extreme edge of a precipice, which! looked down a giddy depth, and afforded a lovely* view lengthways of the narrow strip of caroub-foresa and verdure along the mountain range to the margin! of the sea. The guide knew every inch of these! labyrinth-like works, and upon my expressing a desire to ascend to the earth on the summit, he commenced a scramble over loose stones, large rocksJ and occasional slippery grass, holding on to the now. numerous dwarf-cypress, until we reached a narrow] saddle of the peak, over which a man could sit astride' and look down to the right and left into the depths below. It was necessary to cross this saddle for about] ten or twelve feet to gain the wider pathway formed^ by the natural rock, which was terminated after a few] yards by the castle tower. This, as may be imagined,] was built upon the verge, and formed an artificial peak tO; the precipices upon all sides. The view was superb, as it commanded a panorama of mountains, valleys, the sea,; precipices, and all that could make a perfect landscape.' Sitting down to rest upon the solid rock upon the left of this castle entrance, I observed that it was composed of white marble. The exterior had agreyish coating from the action of the weather, but this could be scraped off with a knife, which exposed the white marble beneath. I remarked that the cement of the masonry was mixed with small fragments of the same material, and subsequently I discovered* blocks of this substance in the immediate neighbourhood of Kyrenia. There was a peculiarity in the walls and towers ol

View PDF version of this page


  Previous First Next