West of Larnaca Cyprus
About 5 km (3 miles) from town, in the direction of the airport, the Salt Lake that was a source of the ancient town's renewed prosperity covers an area of some 6.5 sq km (2 sq miles). Lying 3 m (10 ft) below sea level, it is a true lake only in spring, when it dries up: each year the salt is col¬lected at the end of July.
In autumn and winter, thousands of migratory flamingos pass through in a colourful cloud of pink, as they do at Akrotiri near Limassol. Hala Sultan Tekke, a Muslim shrine, looks like a mirage in the dry summer season thrusting its minaret through greenery over the blinding salt flats.
An impor¬tant Muslim pilgrimage place, the shrine contains the remains of the Prophet Mohammed's maternal aunt, Umm Haam (Foster Mother), known as Hala Sultan in Turkish. Ac¬cording to Muslim tradition, Umm Haram came to Cyprus with a party of Arab invaders in 647 AD. She fell from her mule near the Salt Lake, broke her neck and was buried there. The Turks built the mosque in her honour in 1816.
To enter, you leave your shoes at the door. The outer room has brightly painted oc¬tagonal columns and there is a women's gallery to the right. In the inner sanctuary, the guardian points out the trilithon structure above Umm Haram's grave two enor¬mous stones about 4.5 m (about 15 ft) high, covered with a meteorite that is said to have come from Mecca.
A legend relates that it hovered in the air by itself here for centuries. A couple of miles further west is the village of Kiti. Its famous church, Panayia An¬gelostikos (Built by Angels), stands just north of the main crossroads. Domed and in golden stone, the present II th¬century edifice replaces a much earlier structure.
At the entrance is the 14th century chapel belonging to a rich me¬diaeval family, the Gibelets. But the outstanding feature of the church is the splendid early Byzantine mosaic in the apse, considered among the finest in Cyprus. Shown standing, the Virgin Mary holds the Christ Child, flanked by the arch¬angels Michael and Gabriel.
Lefkara Cyprus
At an altitude of about 730 m (2,400 ft), Lefkara 50 km (30 miles) from Larnaca is actually two villages, Pano Lefkara and Kato Lefkara, which occupy a picturesque site in the foothills of the Troodos mountains. The name Lefkara is synonymous with drawn embroidery (lejkari-tika) , the traditional cottage industry that has brought the village fame for over five centuries. Widely and wrongly known as lace, lejkaritika is linen openwork stitched with intricate geometric patterns.
Women still work in nar¬row streets and courtyards, patiently turning out embroi¬dered articles. Most of them sell their work to one of four major companies in Lefkara, so you can't exactly pluck a doily from the hands of the maker. But lejkaritika is readi¬ly available in shops here and all over Cyprus. You can also buy delicious Turkish delight and figs here.
Just south is Khirokitia, a small village known mainly for its Neolithic ruins. One of the oldest sites in Cyprus, dating from 7000 Be, it was discovered in 1934 by Porfy¬rios Dikeos, then director of the Cyprus Museum. After a climb up some steep steps ¬on the other side of a bridge from today's town visitors reach the most interesting of four areas.
There is a main street and the stone founda¬tions of beehiveshaped hous¬es (tholos). Made of clay or mud bricks, the dwellings were built in successive lay¬ers; when a structure fell down, a new one was put up to take its place The dead were buried right in the cellar, so to speak: 26 skeletons were found in the ruins of one house.
Car hire in Cyprus
Present day visitors to Cyprus can choose from a wide range of car hire companies, but the best and most economical way to travel around the island is by hire car from Larnaca or Paphos Airport.
Among thousands of artefacts uncovered, many of interest (tools, idols, beads) are exhibited in Nicosia's Cyprus Museum. On the way back to Lar¬naca make a detour to Stavrovouni (Mountain of the Cross), a hilltop monastery at an altitude of 689 m (2,260 ft). It affords a magnificent view north across Nicosia and the plain to the blue Kyrenia Mountains beyond and south over neatly terraced hills to the Salt Lake, Larnaca and the Mediterranean.
Stavrovouni is built on the site of a shrine to Aphrodite which, like the monastery today, was off¬limits to women. Nevertheless, Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, is said to have ventured up there to found the monastery with a piece of the True Cross in AD 330. Men are allowed to stay overnight in the austere monastic accommodation.
East of Larnaca Cyprus
The island's southeast corner is its vegetable garden. Its potatoes, aubergines, toma¬toes, cucumbers and onions are all important produce for export. But here, too, the politico military realities of Cyprus become most apparent. Just beyond the Larnaca Bay resort hotels, you pass through the British 'Sovereign Base Area' of Dhekelia.
The Greek Cypriot Republic is squeezed here into a narrow strip by the nearby border of the Turkish-occupied zone, swooping south to include Famagusta. Close to the border, the vil¬lage of Pyla claims the dis-tinction of being the only community in which Greek and Turkish Cypriots still live side by side. It also boasts a mediaeval tower and some good fish restaurants. With the Turkish occupa¬tion of Famagusta, Ayia Napa has been transformed from a tiny fishing village into a major seaside resort.
Its beach¬es of fine sand, a rarity in Cyprus, have proved a huge commercial asset. Boutiques, cafes, restaurants and travel agencies have completely hemmed in the venerable Monastery of Ayia Napa (Our Lady of the Forest). Built around 1530, originally as a nunnery, it remains one of the island's handsomest surviving Venetian buildings.
Seek out a moment of tranquillity in its Gothic cloister and interior courtyard with a charming octagonal marble fountain. Carved out of the rock, the Domed fountain at the tran¬quil Ayia Napa monastery. church lies partially underground.
From the small chapel to the east, steps descend to an ancient sycamore said to be 600 years old. At the island's south-eastern tip, Cape Greco presents spectacular rocky coves for hardy bathers seeking to es¬cape the crowd. Families head for the sandy beaches at Fig Tree Bay and Protaras. The highway continues north to the resort of Paralimnia.
It ends at the border town of Dherinia, where UN troops man a guard post and homesick Greek Cypriot refugees come for a rooftop view across to Famagusta. When it comes to good living, the people of Limassol seem to consider themselves a cut above the rest of the island.
These natural extroverts find the citizenry of Nicosia strait¬laced, Famagustans, even in exile, too business like. Cer¬tainly, Limassol can boast par¬ticularly good restaurants, a brash and boisterous nightlife and it plays host to the island's wildest presented Carnival.
A major role in all this is played by the big Cypriot wineries, all headquartered here. During the September wine festival, they offer com¬plimentary samples of their wares and turn the local park into a freewheeling open-air wine bar.
In autumn and winter, thousands of migratory flamingos pass through in a colourful cloud of pink, as they do at Akrotiri near Limassol. Hala Sultan Tekke, a Muslim shrine, looks like a mirage in the dry summer season thrusting its minaret through greenery over the blinding salt flats.
An impor¬tant Muslim pilgrimage place, the shrine contains the remains of the Prophet Mohammed's maternal aunt, Umm Haam (Foster Mother), known as Hala Sultan in Turkish. Ac¬cording to Muslim tradition, Umm Haram came to Cyprus with a party of Arab invaders in 647 AD. She fell from her mule near the Salt Lake, broke her neck and was buried there. The Turks built the mosque in her honour in 1816.
To enter, you leave your shoes at the door. The outer room has brightly painted oc¬tagonal columns and there is a women's gallery to the right. In the inner sanctuary, the guardian points out the trilithon structure above Umm Haram's grave two enor¬mous stones about 4.5 m (about 15 ft) high, covered with a meteorite that is said to have come from Mecca.
A legend relates that it hovered in the air by itself here for centuries. A couple of miles further west is the village of Kiti. Its famous church, Panayia An¬gelostikos (Built by Angels), stands just north of the main crossroads. Domed and in golden stone, the present II th¬century edifice replaces a much earlier structure.
At the entrance is the 14th century chapel belonging to a rich me¬diaeval family, the Gibelets. But the outstanding feature of the church is the splendid early Byzantine mosaic in the apse, considered among the finest in Cyprus. Shown standing, the Virgin Mary holds the Christ Child, flanked by the arch¬angels Michael and Gabriel.
Lefkara Cyprus
At an altitude of about 730 m (2,400 ft), Lefkara 50 km (30 miles) from Larnaca is actually two villages, Pano Lefkara and Kato Lefkara, which occupy a picturesque site in the foothills of the Troodos mountains. The name Lefkara is synonymous with drawn embroidery (lejkari-tika) , the traditional cottage industry that has brought the village fame for over five centuries. Widely and wrongly known as lace, lejkaritika is linen openwork stitched with intricate geometric patterns.
Women still work in nar¬row streets and courtyards, patiently turning out embroi¬dered articles. Most of them sell their work to one of four major companies in Lefkara, so you can't exactly pluck a doily from the hands of the maker. But lejkaritika is readi¬ly available in shops here and all over Cyprus. You can also buy delicious Turkish delight and figs here.
Just south is Khirokitia, a small village known mainly for its Neolithic ruins. One of the oldest sites in Cyprus, dating from 7000 Be, it was discovered in 1934 by Porfy¬rios Dikeos, then director of the Cyprus Museum. After a climb up some steep steps ¬on the other side of a bridge from today's town visitors reach the most interesting of four areas.
There is a main street and the stone founda¬tions of beehiveshaped hous¬es (tholos). Made of clay or mud bricks, the dwellings were built in successive lay¬ers; when a structure fell down, a new one was put up to take its place The dead were buried right in the cellar, so to speak: 26 skeletons were found in the ruins of one house.
Car hire in Cyprus
Present day visitors to Cyprus can choose from a wide range of car hire companies, but the best and most economical way to travel around the island is by hire car from Larnaca or Paphos Airport.
Among thousands of artefacts uncovered, many of interest (tools, idols, beads) are exhibited in Nicosia's Cyprus Museum. On the way back to Lar¬naca make a detour to Stavrovouni (Mountain of the Cross), a hilltop monastery at an altitude of 689 m (2,260 ft). It affords a magnificent view north across Nicosia and the plain to the blue Kyrenia Mountains beyond and south over neatly terraced hills to the Salt Lake, Larnaca and the Mediterranean.
Stavrovouni is built on the site of a shrine to Aphrodite which, like the monastery today, was off¬limits to women. Nevertheless, Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, is said to have ventured up there to found the monastery with a piece of the True Cross in AD 330. Men are allowed to stay overnight in the austere monastic accommodation.
East of Larnaca Cyprus
The island's southeast corner is its vegetable garden. Its potatoes, aubergines, toma¬toes, cucumbers and onions are all important produce for export. But here, too, the politico military realities of Cyprus become most apparent. Just beyond the Larnaca Bay resort hotels, you pass through the British 'Sovereign Base Area' of Dhekelia.
The Greek Cypriot Republic is squeezed here into a narrow strip by the nearby border of the Turkish-occupied zone, swooping south to include Famagusta. Close to the border, the vil¬lage of Pyla claims the dis-tinction of being the only community in which Greek and Turkish Cypriots still live side by side. It also boasts a mediaeval tower and some good fish restaurants. With the Turkish occupa¬tion of Famagusta, Ayia Napa has been transformed from a tiny fishing village into a major seaside resort.
Its beach¬es of fine sand, a rarity in Cyprus, have proved a huge commercial asset. Boutiques, cafes, restaurants and travel agencies have completely hemmed in the venerable Monastery of Ayia Napa (Our Lady of the Forest). Built around 1530, originally as a nunnery, it remains one of the island's handsomest surviving Venetian buildings.
Seek out a moment of tranquillity in its Gothic cloister and interior courtyard with a charming octagonal marble fountain. Carved out of the rock, the Domed fountain at the tran¬quil Ayia Napa monastery. church lies partially underground.
From the small chapel to the east, steps descend to an ancient sycamore said to be 600 years old. At the island's south-eastern tip, Cape Greco presents spectacular rocky coves for hardy bathers seeking to es¬cape the crowd. Families head for the sandy beaches at Fig Tree Bay and Protaras. The highway continues north to the resort of Paralimnia.
It ends at the border town of Dherinia, where UN troops man a guard post and homesick Greek Cypriot refugees come for a rooftop view across to Famagusta. When it comes to good living, the people of Limassol seem to consider themselves a cut above the rest of the island.
These natural extroverts find the citizenry of Nicosia strait¬laced, Famagustans, even in exile, too business like. Cer¬tainly, Limassol can boast par¬ticularly good restaurants, a brash and boisterous nightlife and it plays host to the island's wildest presented Carnival.
A major role in all this is played by the big Cypriot wineries, all headquartered here. During the September wine festival, they offer com¬plimentary samples of their wares and turn the local park into a freewheeling open-air wine bar.
Labels: East of Larnaca Cyprus
posted by The Car Hire Guy at
09:06
1 Comments:
I am really happy with the north cyprus car-rental services .They have the facility of online booking services and they take care of customers the moment you reach the airport.
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