View PDF version of this page

discovered by exploring and digging them, but tlie watchful jealousy of the Turks being carried in Paphos to a most rigid excess their passages are blocked up by dirt and dust and they serve as stables to the donkeys of the neighbourhood; we dislodged at least a hundred of these animals, nor did we observe any other cattle among the mini. On learing these rnins we rode about half a mile along the plain, which was badly cultivated, and stopped at some other ruins, situated exactly S.E. by E. of Palaion CastiOn, named, f could learn no reason why, Afrikee. The spot at which we stopped was a low rock, abont 200 paces long, and 150 broad. Round the sides of this rock were hewn out numbers of caverns, mostly larger than those of Palaion Castron; some of these were from forty to fifty feet square, but differing from them in that there were no tombs cut within them except in one chamber, which was about thirty-five feet long, and thirty broad. Of these caves I connted about thirty, all cut in the sides of the rock below. On its top there is little to be seen, except three ruined arched chambers, and these £ should suppose to be Venetian. These chambers are about sixty feet long, fifteen high. The breadth of the chamber is the span of the arch which roofs it, and the three chambers and arches join each other. They are built of stones of unequal size, but none of them more than four feet long, and eight inches high. On the hill are to be seen some marks of foundations of buildings, but not sufficiently clear to enable one to trace out chambers. The hill commands an extensive view of the plain of Paphos, which is very rich land, and in some parts tolerably cultivated, and of the low brown mountains that bound it. As the sun set while I was examining the remains at Afrikee, I could only take a hasty walk round Baffo, the Marina, which, having been under the Venetians a considerable town, is full of ruined houses and churches. During this walk Signor A. showed me a small hill, on whicli were some granite columns, and under which he told me were subterraneous chambers. This spot he told me was called by the inhabitants the tomb of Venus: as it was quite dark when we came to it, we deferred our departure, which had been fixed for daylight to-morrow, another day. At seven we returned over the plain, which, for the hour we rode back, was covered with thistles, to Ieros Kypos. October 22. Therm. 02°. At eight we rode on donkeys to the Marina, over the same plain, cultivated, but covered with thistles, as we returned by last night. Baffo, formerly a Venetian tomi of some magnitude, is now like Famagosto, choked up by its own ruins. Palaces and churches are everywhere seen crumbling to the ground, and about eighty families inhabit the patched remains of as many palaces, of whom two-thirds are Tnrks. Κ very house has its garden, which gives a richness to the scene, and contrasts finely with the ruins around. The bay is large, but the port very unsafe, as the mole remains only in part to the east and west, and not at all to the south, which is thus left quite open : to this port, bad as it is, vessels frequently resort for the advantage of smuggling com; there were two small Idriote vessels anchored in it while we were there. The port is commanded by an insignificant castle bnilt on its banks by the Turks ; on the east side, opposite to the castle, is n, small ruined Creek church. We walked immediately to the hill where is the ruin which the inhabitants call the tomb of Venus, which is about 100 paces north of the port. Over its surface, which is of very considerable extent, and in its immediate environs, are scattered a great number of grey granite columns, of which all I saw were broken : they were two feet in diameter. As we were bathing in the port, we found two of these nnder the water, and as it is difficult to know whether these scattered remains are in their original situation, or have been displaced by the hands of man or nature, it becomes nearly impossible to judge what was the extent of the building they supported, or to decide whether that building was the temple of Venus. I think however that the fact of the Marina above being still called Baffo 442 EXCERPTA CYPRIA.

View PDF version of this page