Welcome to Cyprus

This island's rich history is surpassed only by its hospitality.

By CAROLYN THORNTON

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 16, 2000

Walking on a street in the village of Kathikas, Cyprus, I met a man carrying sacks of apples. He smiled, with a mustachioed grin that reached his eyes. I motioned for permission to take his photograph.

He nodded. "British?" he asked.

"No. American."

"Ah. Welcome."

A friend of his had come up the street behind me and heard the exchange. They spoke together in Cypriot (a form of Greek); then the friend reached into one of the bags for an apple and handed it to me.

Such welcomes greeted me throughout this eastern Mediterranean island during my spring visit. It happened at Lefkara (a town famous for lacemaking), where a youngster grinned shyly at me before approaching to practice his English.

"Welcome, guest," he said.

In the village of Akourdaleia (population 30), a woman who saw me photographing her house not only invited me inside to tour her guest rooms, but insisted I stay and sample a dessert of a syrup-drenched fig.

"Cypriots are not rich in computers or stereo equipment. But they are rich in hospitality," said Gina Ghillyer, a British vacationer who loved Cyprus so much she moved there.

She works at the Coral Beach Hotel near Pafos, where she once sent a group of German tourists into the countryside for the day. Two days later they returned, loaded down with fruit and tales of island hospitality.

"They had met a priest who invited them to stay in the monastery," Ghillyer said. "Then a family cooked a suckling pig and invited them to join their celebration."

The welcome begins at Larnaka, where most visitors arrive on flights from Amsterdam or London. At this cosmopolitan coastal resort, a palm-lined promenade and a sprawl of sidewalk cafes are in the sun an average of 300 days each year. Apartments and hotels face the sunrise.

A couple of blocks inland stands the Church of St. Lazarus, built of blindingly white limestone on what may have been the saint's second grave -- a sarcophagus discovered here bore the inscription, "Lazarus, a friend of Christ." In his second lifetime, Lazarus found refuge here and served as bishop of Cyprus.

The devout light sticks of incense and move around inside the church kissing each holy icon. The most important of these is a golden reliquary believed to contain Lazarus' skull. To view the empty tomb, I ducked into the chamber to the right of and beneath the sanctuary. The stone ceiling was low, the air stuffy, reminding me of passageways in Egyptian pyramids. Someone had placed a pot of plastic flowers at the head of the empty grave.

Because it's not on the coast, most visitors make day trips to Cyprus' capital city of Nicosia, a cultural center where designer shops and museums are located.

One of the most important is the Archaeological Museum, where artifacts with English captions chronicle the island's history: Located at a crossroads between continents, Cyprus attracted Mycenaeans, Egyptians, Macedonians, Romans, Byzantine, Ottomans and others, who each left their mark in the island's 7,000-year history.

The most charming collection in the museum is a find of 2,000 clay warrior figures (similar to Xi'an, China's terra cotta army but on a smaller scale) discovered in 1929. Excavated at the Sanctuary of Ayia Irini in the northwest, they had been used during the Bronze Age, 1200-1050 B.C. In all, only two of the doll-size figures are females.

Ancient Nicosia was fortified by the Venetians with a circular wall 3 miles in circumference. The moat now serves as public park.

I wandered through Laiki Yitonia, the folk quarter, which was only recently restored following its decline during the 1974 Turkish invasion. I followed narrow, zigzagging lanes where cafe tables spill into every available outdoor space. Aromas of grilling meat mingled with floral bouquets.

On the pedestrian zone on Ledras Street, trendy clothing stores march right up to a barbed wire barrier patrolled by a soldier. This "Green Line," a buffer ranging from 10 to 30 yards wide, separates Greek Cypriots from the Turks in the North.

After a Turkish military invasion in 1974, the occupying forces encouraged Turks to come to Cyprus, to populate land abandoned by Greek Cypriots. The invasion followed an Athens-backed coup by supporters of union with Greece. The invasion left 30 percent of the island's territory in the hands of Turkish Cypriots, who made up just 18 percent of the population.

There is no official figure of how many Turks moved to northern Cyprus after the invasion. Estimates range from 30,000 to 80,000 settlers.

During the Turkish invasion, "everything happened overnight," said my guide, Myria Stasoulli. "Thousands (of displaced Cypriots) lived in tents at that time. At the moment it is peaceful, a safe place to see."

Today, residents and visitors alike are quick to note the low crime rate on the island. It is common to leave keys in cars or for a woman to be out alone at night.

After the invasion, the government organized the Cyprus Handicraft Centre to keep alive traditional crafts. At the Centre, artisans from villages and displaced Cypriots from the Turkish sector demonstrate and teach various arts -- lacemaking, embroidery, silversmithing, woodworking, pottery, copper work, batik, mosaic tiles, leather work. Students train for free and are paid by the piece for their work.

I watched Kostas Lefteri toss a lump of orange clay onto a potter's wheel. Within minutes his skilled hands fashioned it into a vase. He said he lost his home in Kyrenia during the Turkish invasion.

From the top row of Kourion Amphitheater west of Limassol, the Mediterranean comes ashore with a roar. Yet someone standing on the small depression in the stone stage below spoke in a normal voice to demonstrate how clear the sound traveled -- though the theater was built in the second century B.C. A semicircle of knee-high limestone blocks forms seats for 3,500 spectators -- the same number who watched the works of Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes. Today classical music concerts and plays entertain summer theatergoers.

East of the theater stand the ruins of the House of Eustolios, a fifth century A.D. mansion with a number of mosaic tile floors. A Greek inscription in one mosaic says that instead of using iron, copper or diamonds, this house was built with the precious symbols of Christ, a testimony to the spread of Christianity on the island.

The Kourion complex is among the many archaeological ruins found along this stretch of coast. Nearby, 6,500 spectators once watched foot races, wrestling and the discus and javelin throw at the second-century A.D. stadium. The ancients believed that the sea gave birth to the goddess Aphrodite at a bay marked by a rock named Petra Tou Romiou. Her temple lies elsewhere along the coast.

A cornucopia of ruins remains at Pafos, where the entire town is on the list of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites of cultural and natural treasures. The House of Dyonysius alone has more than 550 square yards of mosaics -- some of the finest in the eastern Mediterranean dating from the second century A.D. Spread like carpets among the ruins, they depict hunting scenes and Greek myths. Walks amid lavender and chrysanthemums lead to a Roman theater and the ruins of Saranta Kolones, a Byzantine castle.

Among other significant ruins in Pafos are catacombs used as chapels in the early days of Christianity. A tree decorated with tattered material hung as votive offerings marks the Catacomb of Ayia Solomoni. A column outside the church of Ayia Kyriaki is known as St. Paul's Pillar, where tradition says the apostle was bound and scourged for preaching Christianity.

A square stone fort stands guard over the harbor where colorful fishing boats bob in the harbor and cafe tables spill onto the quay. It's a perfect setting for watching fishermen cast their lines from the dock.

Carolyn Thornton is a freelance writer who lives in Purvis, Miss. Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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