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.
 
 
 
 
uses Google technology and indexes only and selectively internet - libraries having books with free public access
 
  Previous Next  

SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 276

View PDF version of this page

chief commissioner himself being-a small whitewashed room, which exhibited an utter disregard of personal comfort in the interests of government economy. There is a curious old fort within the town which has been altered and added to until it has '. become an absurdity; this would be utterly useless as a defence, and the Turkish guns having been removed, [it is now converted into a prison ; beneath the ground there are dungeons which are no longer used. Th e roadstead of Limasol is formed by the projection of the Akrotiri peninsula, which affords (protection from the west and south-west, but it is directly exposed from the east to the south. The anchorage is safe, with good holding-ground in ten fathoms. Th e peculiar shaped peninsula of Akrotiri is about seven miles wide, and the lake in its centre, when full, has a width of about four miles ; but during the exhaustive heat of summer it evaporates to the dimensions of a mere pool, and leaves its deserted bed encrusted with a deposit of salt. This lake has no connection with the sea, and its maximum depth is under three feet ; the salt is formed upon the same principle as that of the Lake of Larnaca, and certainly not by the percolation of sea-water through the sand, as the Limasol lake is considerably above the sea level. There is a lighthouse at Cape Gatta, which can be seen at a distance of fifteen miles, as from its elevated position the lamp is 190 feet above the sea. From this point to Limasol the beach is low and sandy, and has always been accepted as the most favourable point for a disembarkation of troops. With historical facts before us there is small excuse for the blunder committed in landing our army of occupation, during the extreme heat of July, at

View PDF version of this page


  Previous First Next