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Cyprus in the fifties ...continued
Before we left Nicosia we went to see the Büyük Khan or Han or Hani since all the words seem to be used to describe an Inn. This was once the largest inn there was in Nicosia and housed travelers and their animals when these were the means of transport. Since then all of the lower, stables part, have had their fronts closed in. It was then used first as a prison and later as housing for destitute families, which is what my picture shows. Once there was a network of such inns across the Island but this is one of the few remaining and has now been renovated. It is interesting to remember that inns such as this, a two storey building enclosing a court yard, were common throughout the middle east and the Christmas story about "no room at the inn" presumably refers to one. Apparently it was common practice when an inn was full to sweep out some of the ground floor stables and put people in them and was in fact no big deal. Certainly in the country farmers live under the same roof as their animals, separated by only a single wall, so the smells that we would find off putting were just not noticed.On our way back from Nicosia we made a detour into Lefkara to see the lace making. The items I brought home were purchased in Limassol as there were no shops in Lefkara selling lace at that time. As I recall it was quite a rough road in places and we wondered if the old Morris Minor was going to get through. We saw the women sitting outside their houses either singly or in groups doing their lace work while the men were in the coffee houses. It was said that they did very little work while they waited for the women to make enough lace to fill a suitcase and then they set off traveling to Europe selling it. The story went that this was the only village in the island where Bridge was played in the coffee houses as the men had picked it up during their travels.
Just outside the village was a traditional threshing floor, a stone paved circle maybe thirty feet in diameter. It was actually in use. We had seen corn being cut by hand using a sickle which must have taken longer than using a scythe as would have happened at home. When it was dry the corn was spread out on the threshing floor surface and a wooden sledge was pulled over it by a donkey. The sledge had flints set in the bottom, partly to stop it wearing away too quickly but mainly to chop up the straw into small lengths which it was said made better cattle feed. Often either the oldest or youngest member of the family would ride on the sledge to guide the donkey but in this case one chap was doing all the work. When it was judged that the grains of wheat were dislodged from the ears they had to be separated from the chaff. This was done by winnowing which was throwing shovels of the mixture up in the air and letting the wind blow the chaff away while the heavier grains fell to the floor.
The clay cooking oven that most village houses had seemed to need a bit of skill in use. A fire of dry wood was lit in the top opening and had to be kept going until the oven was judged hot enough to use. Father always does that and then mother does the cooking I was told by one family. If bread was to be cooked the oven usually had a floor of tiles so the still burning embers were pushed to the side and the ashes raked out. Then the floor was cleaned with a damp mop and the loaves put in place using a special tool consisting of a flat metal plate on a handle. When full of bread the front opening was closed up and the cooking started. The same tool was finally used to get the cooked bread out of the oven.
As we continued homeward we came to Limassol and drove down to the sea before we got to the town so that we could see the part of the walls of Amathus ( old Limassol ) that were still standing. Further into the town boat building was being done on the beach. Wooden boats of course but not any old boats, these were forty feet or more in length and quite substantial craft. Quite where the power came from on the seaward side of the shore road was not clear but there was an electric drill. However there was also an adze in evidence. When a boat had to be moved the work stopped and everyone came and turned a capstan by hand. On the other side of the road was the municipal park and here was the only time I saw a Mouflon ( Cypriot wild sheep ) as they had some captive ones. Nowadays there is a stylized one on the tail fin of every Cyprus Airways plane. Further into town was the Castle, where Richard the Lionheart was said to have married Queen Berengaria. This was in the Turkish quarter of the town with a mosque nearby and also a series of blacksmiths shops making all sorts of metal ware for use in agriculture and the home.
We came back to camp on the coast road passing in the distance Kolossi Castle which we had already visited. It was in quite a good state of repair as was the Sugar Mill next to it. What the actual process was I don't know but you could see a small aqueduct coming down through the village to it. ( It has now been excavated to show a complicated series of channels etc. for the water. ) By contrast, a bit further on, the Amphitheater at Curium, admittedly much older, was virtually a ruin. Where the seats now are was a scree of rubble stretching down the hillside. I went and stood on the mosaic of Kticic to take a picture but could not get far enough away to get all of it in. We were told that she was the Goddess of beginnings and building and that in her hand she had a measuring stick that was the same size as the Roman equivalent of our foot rule. Ideas seem to change and I think the tourists are now told something different. After I first saw the mosaic it became well known as an adaptation of it appeared on the labels of bottles of Cyprus Mosaic sherry.
A little further along was the ruin of the Temple of Apollo. This was close enough to the camp to walk to and we had been there. In the bath area the under floor Roman central heating ( Hypocaust ) with a furnace at one end and the floor raised on pillars so that the hot air went underneath was well preserved and interesting. However the corner of the actual temple that one now sees standing on the left hand side as you go up the steps, and which features in the publicity for the site, was not there.
When we went driving in the opposite direction we passed the rock where Aphrodite was supposed to have emerged out of the sea and took the obligatory photographs. We went on to Paphos which then consisted mainly of Ktima which is built on a spur out from the hills over looking the sea. ( Ktima is old Paphos as distinct from ancient Paphos which was called Kouklia and is several miles away up the road to Limassol ) This was three years after the bad earthquake of 1953 had hit the area and there were still damaged buildings in evidence. Several people have told me how, as children, they lived for the best part of a year in a tent while their house was rebuilt. Apparently there were lots of tents in the Municipal park opposite the library but by the time we got there my picture shows they had gone.
We went down to Kato paphos ( the area round the harbour and the castle). It was still a working port with both cargo vessels and fishing boats. I took several pictures and they show there were few buildings there and certainly not an hotel or disco which now cover the area! I have only recently discovered that, quite by chance, one picture shows the man powered harbour light railway in action. The "House of Dionisus" (his name gets spelt in different ways now) which has the spectacular Roman mosaics had not been discovered nor the underground rock hewn "Tombs of the Kings".
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