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.
 
 
 
 
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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 164

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partition of the empire of Alexander the Great it fell to the lot of Antigonus, after the severe contests between Demetrius and Menelaus. Like all ancient sea-ports of importance, Salamis was the object of continual attacks, and by degrees Es prosperity declined. In addition to the damage |i and loss by sieges, it was seriously affected by an earthquake, and a portion disappeared beneath the Isea. The sand has submerged a large area of the ruins which face the sea, but General di Cesnola was able to trace the ancient wall for a distance of 6850 feet. It is quite possible that the earthquake may Ì have altered the conditions of the harbour, which in former days was of considerable importance. It has now entirely changed, and the bay near the shore is extremely shallow, although good anchorage exists 'in the roadstead in ten to sixteen fathoms. The high masonry piers which had supported the arches of the ancient aqueduct from Kythrea looked ' like spectres of past greatness among the silent ruins, made doubly desolate by the miserable aspect of the withered plain around them. A short distance from these is the church of St. Barnabas, raised upon the site where it is believed that the body of the Saint was discovered, together with the Gospel of St. Matthew. How the Saint and the Gospel had been preserved in the damp soil of that neighbourhood must be left to the imagination. Passing through the ruins of the old town with the line of the wall distinctly visible upon the sea front, we •shortly arrived at the spot where the river Pedias should have an exit to the sea. No sign of a riverbed existed, but a long series of swamps, composed chiefly of bare mud, would during wet weather have I. 1

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