View PDF version of this page

in the brown desert-like plain of Messaria, broken byj the numerous flat-topped hills to which I have already j alluded. On the west the important mountain-range^ which includes Trôôdos bounded the view by thel snow-capped heights of the ancient Mount Olympus,J between which several chains of lower hills formed a] dark base of plutonic rocks, which contrasted with the painful glare of the immediate foreground. The highest points of this range are Trôôdos, 6590 feet, Adelphe, 5380 feet, Makhera, 4730 feet. These are] the measurements as they appear upon the maps ; but] the recent survey by the Royal Engineers has reduced 1 the height of Trôôdos by 250 feet. A green patch at 1 the foot of the Carpas range denoted the position ofl Kythrea, about twelve miles distant east, watered by the extraordinary spring which has rendered it famous both in ancient and modern times ; and almost at our1 feet, or a mile in a direct line, the fortified capital, Lefkosia, presented the usual picturesque appearance of a Turkish town. A combination of date-palms, green orange-gardens, minarets, mosques, houses quaint in their irregularity and colouring, and the grand old Venetian Cathedral, St. Sophia, towering above alll other buildings, were enclosed within the high masonry walls and bastions, comprising a circuit of three statute miles. The position of Lefkosia has been badly chosen, as J it lies in the flat, and must always have been exposed J to a plunging fire from an enemy posted upon the' heights. It was fortified in the time of Constantine the Great, but in 1570 the Venetians demolished the old works and constructed the present elaborate forti- 3 fications. Although the walls are in several places crumbling into ruins, they are still imposing in appear-\

View PDF version of this page