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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 451

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quarter. I showed him ray firman, which, as he could not read, he handed to his secretary, who went right through it. The Turks have built a mean insignificant castle on the beach at the Marina ; and he, supposing it was this I came to see, hummed a nd hawed, said ] should bava done well to bring an order from the governor at Nicosia, and (by the suggestion of his secretary) added that my firman only said 1 was to pass through Cyprus, and not to inspect it. To this I answered that of course my object in passing was to see; that I wonld not give a para to see the castle, which was as wretched a building in the way of fortification as I ever remembered to have set my eyes on. That my only object in visiting the Agha was to pay him a compliment, as I was only come to see the antiquities which he could not prevent me from doing, or if he did try to do so, I should then know how to act: he replied that he had no intention of preventing me, and we left him. The metropolis is composed of ha-lf-raingd honst* of stone, and in a stony valley below the hill on which it is built, are a few gardens, which being in the middle of the town have a veiy pretty effect : as we passed thiOugh the Turkish bnryiiig-gronnd, Signor Andrea (these people think all stones an object of curiosity to Franks) made me observe two stones now covering the tombs of Turks. One contained a ilothick inscription, and on the other were engraved three fleurs de lys, which seein to carry it back at least to the date of the French Kings of Cyprus, possibly to the time of the Arabs. We returned to the convent of the Bishop of Baffo, for whom Mr Voiidiziano had given me a letter, but he was at a village two hours distant, where we made a bad dinner off onions and cheese, after which we mounted our donkeys and iode to the ruins of New Paphos. We first visited those most to the west, which are abont a quarter of a mile south of the rack on which stands Ktema and the metropolis (the rock runs east and west) and are close to the sea, on the low plain. These rains' are called by the general name of Palaio Castra, and their appearance is most extraordinary. Ilvey occupy a spot, of ground, about a quarter of a mile long, and veiy nearly as much broad, which is covered, except in a few spots where the communication is broken, by a mass of solid rack, more or less high but seldom more than "forty feet, and hewn into numerous caves, which appear to have been catacombs, but are now so choked up that it is impossible to see whether they all communicate with each other. These caves are more or less large, and within them are others cut of a shape evidently meant, for tombs, about ten feet long, three broad, and four high. We entered most of these eaves, and found them of valions sizes, some abont twenty feet square, but in general they were smaller, i.e. those above ground, for there are Some subterraneous ones which Signor Andrea, who probably was a better fisherman than antiquary, did not advise us of. Sometimes the rock was so low, and the ceiling consequently so thin, that the excavated part, tô prevent its falling in, was supported by Doriek fluted columns, ten feet high, hewn out of the i'oek, which the Turks have broken off and carried away to adorn their mosques, learing however frequently enough of the capital and shaft to see what was there. There are many small excavations, one or two feet deep, and three or four feet square, like the ground of a basso-relievo, whieh wore probably devoted to tho reception of images: over the entrance to many of the caves are carved architraves, slightly adorned in various ways. Many stairs are cnt on and towards the top of the locks. The rock is of a very soft grey sandstone, and the ruinous state in which it now is must have been produced by some earthquake or tremendous convulsion of nature, as immense masses of it are severed, and lying at some distance from the main body. On the top of the rock nothing is visible. The excavated caves are on eveiy side of it. There are above fifty of the larger ones, and above 100 of them in all. As their floor is generally of earth, much I have no doubt might be TURNER. 4-11

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