Larnaca and car hire Cyprus
Larnaca is a great place to explore by hire car, which can be pre-booked to pick up directly from the airport. Public transport at Larnaca Airport is available, but car hire provides a cheaper and more comfortable alternative.
Much of northern Larnaca is built over the ancient city¬ kingdom of Kition (Kittim to the Turks). Legend attributes its founding to Kittim, a grandson of the Biblical Noah. Excavated traces of dwellings from the 2nd millennium BC make this the oldest continu¬ously inhabited city of Cyprus. Mycenaean refugees from the Peloponnese arrived around 1200 BC.
Three centuries later, enterprising Phoenicians took their place, prospering from the export of copper from Tamassos. But the city fell into decline after its alliance with Persia in the war with Athens (5th century BC). The Phoenician kingship came to an end in 312 BC.
The Lusignan barons re¬vived the town as an important commercial and shipping cen¬tre. Because of the nearby salt Cycling is still one of the best ways of getting around the nearby lake, it was renamed Salina, the present name of Larnaca not catching on much before 1600. (Kition was retained as the name of the Orthodox diocese Makarios was Bish¬op of Kition before becoming Archbishop of Cyprus.) Under the Turks, the foreign mer¬chants who made it their home and the many consulates need¬ed to protect their interests gave the town a cosmopolitan air quite lacking in Nicosia. In the 19th century, Famagusta took away much of Larnaca's commercial activity, but the 1974 partition has swung the pendulum back again to the island's south coast.
The seafront at Larnaca
The Foinikoudes (Palm Tree) Promenade changes its name from Athens Avenue to Ankara as its passes cafes and tavernas overlooking the plea¬sure boat marina and broad sandy beach. In the heart of what was the Turkish quarter, the avenue becomes Pyale Pasha from the comer domi¬nated by the Turkish Fort (1605). View the harbour from the ramparts where cannons once fired (friendly) shots to salute passing ships. Inside the fort are a few archaeological finds from Kition and Hala Sultan Tekke, and stone inscriptions in both Arabic and Hebrew left by the Moslem and Jewish com¬munities who once lived here side by side.
Across the street is the Djami Kebir Mosque found¬ed in the late 16th century, serving now just a few Arab students and businessmen. Notice the be-turbanned tomb¬stones in the little comer graveyard, rare in such prox¬imity to a mosque.
The Church of St Lazarus Larnaca
A couple of blocks inland (at the end of Dionysou Street), you will see the three tiered blind arched campanile of the town's most revered church, dedicated to the man said to have sailed here after Jesus raised him from the dead. It was believed the man of Bethany became bishop of Kition before dying, this time for good.
The church was erected over his tomb and rebuilt many times. Its style is now an eclectic mixture of extravagant Byzan¬tine, Romanesque and Gothic. On the iconostasis, the depic¬tions of the raising of Lazarus include one in silver filigree in which a bystander is holding his nose, a popular feature in early representations of the miracle. In the crypt is the empty sarcophagus.
A small English cemetery to be found alongside the church contains marked graves of merchants, seamen and consuls from the days of the Ottoman Empire. Diagonally across from the tourist office, the Pierides Museum (Zeno Kitieos Street) draws on the private collection of the Swedish honorary consul, Demetrios Pierides (1811-95) and suc¬ceeding generations.
The old family home provides a charming setting for hundreds of archaeological finds and works of art tracing Cypriot history from Neolithic to Byzantine times.
Highlights include: pottery of carved stone and red pol¬ished clay; expressive stat¬uettes such as a chubby little terracotta fellow shouting his mystic anguish; idols of Astarte (Kition Phoenician counterpart to Aphrodite); mediaeval glazed ceramics; Roman glassware from 200 Be to AD 300; Cypriot embroi¬dery, costumes and furniture many of them Pierides family heirlooms.
Attractions in Larnaca Cyprus and car hire
There are so many attractions in Larnaca, Cyprus that the best way to get around them all is to pre-book a hire car from Larnaca Airport before you leave home.
Northwest of the city centre, the District Museum stands at the corner of Kilkis and Kimon streets (near a cinema showing English language films with a deafening sound system). Of principal interest here are the prehistoric finds from nearby Khirokitia and Kalvasos and the excavations at Kition.
The collection dis¬plays hoards of coins and jew¬els, ornaments, vases, lamps, tools and mirrors. Signposted uphill beyond the District Museum, the Kition Acropolis (13th century BC) will appeal chiefly to seasoned archaeology buffs, but a boardwalk stroll through the site has its own surreal charm, hemmed in as it is by the surrounding houses' res-olutely concrete and iron rod modernity.
Much of northern Larnaca is built over the ancient city¬ kingdom of Kition (Kittim to the Turks). Legend attributes its founding to Kittim, a grandson of the Biblical Noah. Excavated traces of dwellings from the 2nd millennium BC make this the oldest continu¬ously inhabited city of Cyprus. Mycenaean refugees from the Peloponnese arrived around 1200 BC.
Three centuries later, enterprising Phoenicians took their place, prospering from the export of copper from Tamassos. But the city fell into decline after its alliance with Persia in the war with Athens (5th century BC). The Phoenician kingship came to an end in 312 BC.
The Lusignan barons re¬vived the town as an important commercial and shipping cen¬tre. Because of the nearby salt Cycling is still one of the best ways of getting around the nearby lake, it was renamed Salina, the present name of Larnaca not catching on much before 1600. (Kition was retained as the name of the Orthodox diocese Makarios was Bish¬op of Kition before becoming Archbishop of Cyprus.) Under the Turks, the foreign mer¬chants who made it their home and the many consulates need¬ed to protect their interests gave the town a cosmopolitan air quite lacking in Nicosia. In the 19th century, Famagusta took away much of Larnaca's commercial activity, but the 1974 partition has swung the pendulum back again to the island's south coast.
The seafront at Larnaca
The Foinikoudes (Palm Tree) Promenade changes its name from Athens Avenue to Ankara as its passes cafes and tavernas overlooking the plea¬sure boat marina and broad sandy beach. In the heart of what was the Turkish quarter, the avenue becomes Pyale Pasha from the comer domi¬nated by the Turkish Fort (1605). View the harbour from the ramparts where cannons once fired (friendly) shots to salute passing ships. Inside the fort are a few archaeological finds from Kition and Hala Sultan Tekke, and stone inscriptions in both Arabic and Hebrew left by the Moslem and Jewish com¬munities who once lived here side by side.
Across the street is the Djami Kebir Mosque found¬ed in the late 16th century, serving now just a few Arab students and businessmen. Notice the be-turbanned tomb¬stones in the little comer graveyard, rare in such prox¬imity to a mosque.
The Church of St Lazarus Larnaca
A couple of blocks inland (at the end of Dionysou Street), you will see the three tiered blind arched campanile of the town's most revered church, dedicated to the man said to have sailed here after Jesus raised him from the dead. It was believed the man of Bethany became bishop of Kition before dying, this time for good.
The church was erected over his tomb and rebuilt many times. Its style is now an eclectic mixture of extravagant Byzan¬tine, Romanesque and Gothic. On the iconostasis, the depic¬tions of the raising of Lazarus include one in silver filigree in which a bystander is holding his nose, a popular feature in early representations of the miracle. In the crypt is the empty sarcophagus.
A small English cemetery to be found alongside the church contains marked graves of merchants, seamen and consuls from the days of the Ottoman Empire. Diagonally across from the tourist office, the Pierides Museum (Zeno Kitieos Street) draws on the private collection of the Swedish honorary consul, Demetrios Pierides (1811-95) and suc¬ceeding generations.
The old family home provides a charming setting for hundreds of archaeological finds and works of art tracing Cypriot history from Neolithic to Byzantine times.
Highlights include: pottery of carved stone and red pol¬ished clay; expressive stat¬uettes such as a chubby little terracotta fellow shouting his mystic anguish; idols of Astarte (Kition Phoenician counterpart to Aphrodite); mediaeval glazed ceramics; Roman glassware from 200 Be to AD 300; Cypriot embroi¬dery, costumes and furniture many of them Pierides family heirlooms.
Attractions in Larnaca Cyprus and car hire
There are so many attractions in Larnaca, Cyprus that the best way to get around them all is to pre-book a hire car from Larnaca Airport before you leave home.
Northwest of the city centre, the District Museum stands at the corner of Kilkis and Kimon streets (near a cinema showing English language films with a deafening sound system). Of principal interest here are the prehistoric finds from nearby Khirokitia and Kalvasos and the excavations at Kition.
The collection dis¬plays hoards of coins and jew¬els, ornaments, vases, lamps, tools and mirrors. Signposted uphill beyond the District Museum, the Kition Acropolis (13th century BC) will appeal chiefly to seasoned archaeology buffs, but a boardwalk stroll through the site has its own surreal charm, hemmed in as it is by the surrounding houses' res-olutely concrete and iron rod modernity.
posted by The Car Hire Guy at
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