MAGIC CYPRUS

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 120, 17 November 1932, Page 22

MAGIC CYPRUS

ROMANTIC ISLAND

LAND OF APHRODITE

HER CURIOUS HISTORY

It has been' called the Unspoiled Island, Ox-gaited Cyprus, Aphrodite's Island, and Love Island. At old Paphos there ate numerous tributes and dedications to the Paphian Venus. The island can boast an image of even a bearded .Venus. The worship of Aphrodite was apparently introduced into Cyprus by the Phoenicians, says a writer in the Melbourne ?'Age." This enchanted part of our Empire lies in a corner of the Mediterranean, about 40 miles from Asia Minor and 60 from the 'Syrian coast. The tourist usually journeys from Beirut to Eainagusta, and if he lands in March he will find the place ■carpeted with daisies, narcissi, tulips, and a rich variety of anemones. In June the heat is tropical, and reminds the traveller of Indian plains and Soudan sands. . The natives say that their country is shaped like the skin of an ox, the tail being.the long narrow peninsula of Carpas, which^ seems to point to the River Issus; associated with the name of Alexander the Great. If one is in search of a peaceful backwater, where ;the hum of industry can never be heard no factory chimney belches smoke, he willfind it here. If he lights upon one of its villages he will see life flowing 'on as serenely as it did perhaps three thousand years ago. The houses are-of sun-baked mud, and wooden plough is still' in use, and the pattern is. exactly that to be seen on the walls of ancient Egyptian temples. He will be amused to'see women sitting breaking stones. The only reminder of the modern world is the steamer at the port or the motor-car on one of the highways. :. Cyprus is about 140 miles long, and its extreme breadth is 60 miles. Its most striking feature is its mountain system. There is an eastern range running to a height <v? about 3000 feet, and a western range, vhose highest peak is 6406 feet. The snow lies deep on the slopes^" and in summer the military encampment at some altitude provides the cooler change which Simla affords to India./ ;:■; J:'':." Roman rubbish. - While Cyprus is at its best in distant valleys and on the northern shore rthere are attractive associations with many of the towns. The sites of Royal cities like Salamis and New Paphos are little else than heaps of rough Eoman Tubbish, and excavations even of the site of the temple of Aphrodite can scarcely be described as impressive, though, of course, the collections secured are most valuable. The original temjole had been destroyed by an earthquake, but was rebuilt by Augustus. $he capital is- Nicosia, with a cathedral and ruins dating from the thirteenth century. At Famagusta the {traveller is shown Othello's Tower and solemnly assured that it was here the jealous Moor smothered Desdeinona. The guide- does not add that it was only after the British occupation that the - building was associated with Othello. Mr. Maynard Owen Williams, ivho writes so charmingly of Cyprus in ■the '' National Geographic Magazine,'' --was delighted to find that along the iiorth wall was a golf course, where at any stroke your ball might Toll into a prehistoric cave. The town itself, once 3-ich and wicked, sought to make Amends for its sins by a feverish building of churches. Castles, abbeys, and '■cathedrals are everywhere in evidence, and each with its own peculiar record. - The process of modernising the island goes on cheerily, for already there are 850 miles of excellent motor and carriage highways and 2000 miles of village roads. The main industries are asbestos; copper, cigarettes, silk, and .embroidery, and, as the name " Cyprus " means. "copper," it is a disputed point whether the copper mines /suggested the name. THE FOAM-BORN. It is claimed that Cyprus has a more ■romantic and tragic history than any ;other island on the globe. One may stand at Paphos looking at the waves Tbeating on the coast, and recall that here Aphrodite, the foam-born god"dess, came. The Odyssey says: "So she to Cyprus came, laughter-loving 'Aphrodite, to Paphos; there she has a shrine and. an altar fragrant with incense." The Phoenicians had been there ■before her, and with their usual energy had been working the copper mines and setting up trading stations. Beforo that period the island had been invaded and conquered by the Egyptians, fifteen hundred years prior to the Christian era. Captain C. W. J. Orr, in his work on Cyprus, says that this is the first positive information we possess as to the 'early history of the island. The inhabitants conquered by the Egyptians were apparently of lonian origin. Who were 'their predecessors no one can tell." The Phoenicians joined with the Cypriotes in throwing offi the yoke, of Egypt, and in the fourth century B.C. a tide of Greek settlers flowed Cyprus-wards, and took up their abode. Before that time the island had been, tributary to the Assyrians, and was taken and reJtaken by contending Eastern •■ powers. •'Thus," -says Captain Orr, "Cyprus lad in ■ the course of. a thousand stormy years seen empires was and "wane around her, and had herself been the prey of the conquerors. She had seen: the temples of the conquering races set up one by one on her shores, and had been constrained to bow the knee to the Egyptian gods of Isis and Serapis,' to tho Phoenician Baal and Assyrian Melkartt, as each race gained ascendancy." Cyprus took an active part in the long conflicts between Phoenicians and . and was itself rent by quarrels between those who favoured the Greeks and those who stood for Phoenician rule. It was practically Europe against Asia. When Alexander the Great defeated the Persians he annexed Cyprus, and at his death, or x shortly thereafter, the island was seized by Egypt. About 60 B.C. it passed into the hands of Home. Christianity was early afoot in Cyprus, and it had a visit from )St.' Paul. His colleague Barnabas was anative of Cyprus. ,Arabs and Byzantine Emperors jffought for this jewel of the Mediterranean, and at last England appeared lipon the scene.. Richard the LionJjearted, on his way to the Crusades, jjmded on Cyprus to punish Isaac Comnenus for insulting Berengaria of STavarre. Sis days after landing at Jjlmassol, and in the chapel of the little CFothie fortress, which exists to this day, Richard was married to Berengaria. SOLD TO THE KNIGHTS. • The island did not long remain under English rule, for Richard needed money, and sold Cyprus to the Knights Templar for a sum equivalent in our day to about £320,000. The Templars could not keep the" turbulent population in order, so the bargain was cancelled, and the island was handed over to Guy de IJusignan as compensation for his loss of Jerusalem. For three: hundred years it was ruled by his dynasty. Genoese fend Venetian powers were the next iowners, and in 1570 the Turks captured Nicosia, the capital, and presently ihe wholo island passed'into their possession. The Cyprus Convention of 1878 handed over the administration of the island to Turkey in return for certain •guarantees, but in 1914 Cyprus was defl. pitely annexed, to Great Britain. The

island is one of tho few Crown coloics where English officials can bring up their families in health and comfort. "The most pressing necessity now is to bring the educated Cypriote into closer touch with the Government of the island," whose 300,000 of a population consists of Greeks and Turks, a difficult team to handle.

The thrilling history of the island is embodied in cathedrals and castles, especially on tho northern hills. Kantara of the "Hundred Halls" stands on a pillar of rock, "clinging to the lip of _ tho precipice." It is a castle for fairies, and for centuries before Richard came had looked out over the sea, but who built it, and why? No mortal knows.

There lies part of the charm of Cyprus. Its foundation is in the misty past. It touches east and west, pagan and Christian eras, and is an epitome of world history. Under British rule it may be expected to become more productive and prosperous. Poetry and romance stood by its cradle, triumph and despair kept step with its youth, but the new era has- dawned, and all lovers of historic islands will fervently hope that the best is yet to be.