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Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
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CLAUDE DELAVAL COBHAM
Exerpta Cypria
page 272

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been turned on them ; they were adorned on the outside with Corinthian pilasters, the capitals of which were very well executed ; it seems to have been a portico to some very grand building. The front is to the north, and on every pier within there is a nich abont eight feet liigh and fonr feet broad; these niches doubtless were designed for statues: probably this was the temple of Venus and Isis that was in the city, which had its name from that wise lawgiver Solon : the place is now called Aligora, that is, the sea mart. There is a river falls into the sea at this place, nnd ns the channel uf it is not kept open, it makes η morass. This doubtless is the river mentioned by the nntients at this place. Some modem writers have placed Soli at Lefca. a village about a league north of this place. The nntient cape Calhinsa seems to be that point which is to the west of this bay. Returning southwards to the road, we pursued our journey to the west, and in about an hour and a half came to Lefca ; it is a long village built np the side of those hills, which Ave crossed into the delightful country of Solea, which is a vale about a mile wide, and winds between the hills for seven or eight miles: it is much improved with gardens and buildings, and is very well watered with springs and rivulets. We went to a convent where the bishop of Geritten commonly resides; it is situated on the side of the hills, where there are very rich iron mines which are not now worked. On the twenty seventh we went along the vale, and crossing the hills came to the small convent of St Nicholas situated between the hills, where there is such an agréable variety of fields, wood, water and cascades, that it is une of the must delightful solitudes I ever saw; two streams come rushing down the hills, and are earned all through the country of Solea in many rivulets. The asbestus of Cyprus is found in the hills about two leagues to the south east of that place. We travelled in a very difficult road along the fades of the hills to the convent of St John. I observed a great number of pine trees, which they destroy by cutting thein at the bottom, in order to extract tar. On the twenty eighth we travelled over several hills, and ascended the highest of them, where it is very cold, to the convent called Panaia Cheque, or the Madonna of Cheque, where they have a miraculous picture of the blessed Virgin and onr Saviour, painted as they say, by St Luke, and brought from Constantinople by a king of Cyprus, whom they call Isage. This place is as much resorted to by the Greeks, as fioretto is by the Latins, and they come to it even from Muscovy. The convent belongs to the Archbishop of Nicosia, and has about seventy monks in it. I was received here with gresit civility by the superior, who met me without the gate, conducted me to the church, and then to their apartment:*, where I was served with marmalade, a drain, and coffee, and alxmt an hour after with α light collation, and in the evening with a grand entertainment at supper. Chap. V. OF ARSINOE, PAPHOS, AND CURIUM. On the twenty ninth we travelled over the mountains, and passed by some old ironworks ; the}' showed us η village called Sarama to the east, where they said a part of the mountain had been thrown by an earthquake. We arrived the same evening at the convent of Aiamone. I had α view of the bay of St Kicholat to the north west, in which Arsinoe seems to have been situated, where there was a grove sacred to Jupiter. They talk much of the fountain of lovers, but they informed me that there are no ruins about it. They mention also the port of Agama iu this part, and some ruin* near it, which probably are the remains EXCERPTA CYPRIA.

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