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 323

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line was pointed out upon the thickly bush-covered, sides of the mountain, and we were informed that we should reach Trooditissa monastery by that path. I thought there must be some mistake in the interpretation ; however we dismounted, and preferred walking down the steep zigzags that led to Phyni, half hiddei in masses of bright green foliage of various fruit-trees, now exactly at our feet. This was a very peculiar village, as the broad flat ; roofs of the houses formed terraces ; upon these you 1 could at once walk from the steep hill-slope, into which 1 the houses were inserted by scarping out a level space j for a foundation. The effect was remarkable, as the J house-roofs, in lines, seemed like flights of steps upon| the mountain side. W e halted at the first decent-1 looking dwelling and rested beneath the shade of ani apricot-tree within a small courtyard. The people ail once assembled, and the owner of the house brought | us black wine and raki of his own make ; the latter! he was now engaged in distilling, and some pigs were I revelling in the refuse that had been thrown in a heap] below the window of the store. -This man was proudl of his wine, as it was tolerably free from the taste CTFJ tar ; the jars, having been more than fifty years in con-1 stant use, had lost the objectionable flavour. W e werej thirsty and hot, therefore the wine was not disagree-1 able, and we lunched beneath the apricot. After an hour's rest the real up-hill work com-l menced. W e crossed a broad channel of running! water beneath groves of green trees, and entered a path on the opposite side of the village ; this skirted a deep and precipitous gorge, through which the river | flowed from the high and dark ravine that cleft thej mountain from the summit to the bottom. A water-1

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