Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
years later, effectively ending the classical age of Greek influence (the remains of which
are prevalent on the island to this day).
Most Turkish Cypriots are descendants of Ottoman settlers who arrived in Cyprus from 1570, following their
conquest of the island over the ruling Venetians.
Hellenistic Cyprus
Alexander the Great's emphatic victory over Persian ruler Darius III at Issus in 333 BC re-
leased the island from the Persian Empire. However, Alexander's control of Cyprus, as a
part of the Greek Empire, was fleeting. He asserted his authority by giving the city king-
doms autonomy but refusing to allow them to make their own coins. After his death in
323 BC and after some quarrelling among his successors, the city kingdoms were subjug-
ated by Ptolemy I of Egypt, who took over the island as a part of Hellenistic Egypt.
The island's capital was moved from Salamis to Pafos, which was easily accessible by
sea from Alexandria in Egypt. From this time, obviously, Egyptian influences prevailed
with local cults being introduced and assimilated with Egyptian gods and goddesses.
Cyprus also grew to become an intermediary between the Greek world and the near East
with craftsmen, sculptors and merchants from throughout the eastern Mediterranean intro-
ducing ceramics, sculpture and jewelery.
Nicocreon, the last king of Salamis, assisted Ptolemy in centralising power away from
the city kingdoms to a single appointed governor-general in Pafos. Later suspected of be-
trayal, he burnt his opulent Salamis palace to the ground before committing suicide.
A demos (house and senate) version of parliament was subsequently established on the
island and it remained a Ptolemaic colony (and relatively peaceful) for a further 200 years,
languishing under the rule of an appointed governor-general.
HOUSE OF STONE
Human habitation of the island began around 10,000 BC, when hunter-gatherers roamed the coastal caves of Ak-
rotiri Aetokremnou (Vulture Cliff) and its peninsula in the South. These people may have brought about the ex-
tinction, via hunting, of the Pleistocene-era pygmy hippopotamus and dwarf elephant (a skeleton of the latter was
discovered in a cave near Kyrenia in 1902).
Eventually, in around 6000 BC, these nomads built stone villages like the Aceramic neolithic settlement of
Choirokoitia; a fascinating site near Larnaka which can be visited today.
Built on the side of a hill, beside the banks of a river, its more than 300 inhabitants lived in round, flat-roofed
tholoi (huts) made of stones and mud. They were similar to the contemporary buildings found in Crete and Meso-
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