The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-08-23

YPRUS, lying almost at the
northeast corner of the Medi-
~ terranean SEA. once famed for
the copper which bears its
name, HAS an island stepping-stone
and exchange center for ancient CIV
ilizations
The traveller, If he takes the bar
rem ride from the port of Larnaka TO
the c.: pital, Nicosia, through a chalky
wilderness, is likely to jump to the
conclusion that Cyprus is drab and
wholly uninteresting But half-ori-
entail Cyprus wells her charms, mod
estly masking her beauty in remote
mountain valleys and along the
northern shore, where no steamer
stops except for carob beans. destined
as provender for Spanish cavalry
horses.
The best way to reach Cyprus is
to. steam from Beirut into the sun
set glow, and dock at dawn in Fama-
gusta harbor, beside Othello's Tower,
where the dark-skinned Moor, in
famed by Iago. smothered his Des-
demona.
Once Famagusta. rich and wicked.
had church or chapel for every day
In the year. 1t is a graveyard of old
churches now-some sunk in ruin,
one or two still used to house the
glittering panoply Of worship. one
changed into a mosque, starkly sim
pie as prison cell but with a Mecca
ward mihrab pointing the soul to
paradise
The walls of Famagusta are mas
sive and high, with meats cut from
the native rock on which the has
tons rise; and with gun platforms, or
cavaliers, overlooking them from
within. At the Land Gate there was
an almost unique ravelin, or out
works, which was useless. and at
another corner the mastery Martin
engo bastion, which was merely fu-
tile.
Looking northward one sees the
site of Salamis, six miles away. When
Paul and Barnabas landed in Cyprus,
by little its various forums and mar
ket place are being rescued from the
drifting sands and viper-infested
brush. Salamis enthusiasts would
gladly use its Byzantine name. Con-
stantia. for it is disconcerting, while
trying to hang splendid past onto
lot of sadly fallen columns TO have
visitors exclaim that they have al
ways wanted to see the site of the
battle of Salamis. which occurred GOO
miles awayi
Great Treeless Plain.
/ From Salamis westward TO the
American copper-ore docks at Kara
vostasi there stretches the great
'treeless plain" of the MesaOria, with,
however, a miniature forest at Syn
crasi and orchards surrounding many
of the villages
At places, as around Lefkoniko,
this plain is rich with waving grain
or dotted with golden threshing
floors, where the driver sits in an
easy chair atop the ox-drawn thresh-
ing sledge. Elsewhere rock strata,
tiptilted toward the sky. discourage
agriculture, but rare is the view in
which some leaden-footed animal is
not dragging a pillow.
Along the north run the Kyrenia
mountains, which one labels mere
hills until he has climbed to Buffa-
vento castle or TO St Hilarion and
looked down with awe on plain and
sea- Strung out in well-defined and
craggy ridge, they guard the pleas
ant northern slope from the central
plain. Strong sea winds, sweeping
south, blow the trees lopsided toward
the hills.
South of the Mesaoria are massed
the mountains that eliminate in
Troodos, the Cypriote Olympus. Cut
ting the northern face of that mass
are neighborly valleys traversed by
shrunken streams-the most charm
ing bits of the whole island.
North of SaIamis one of the promi-
nent perches is occupied by Kantara
castle-the Hundred Chambers.
The men of Cyprus have dis
tinctive costume straw hat with
a mushroom brim, plain shirt some
times with jacket, voluminous Tur-
kish trousers whose seats are tucked
into their belts for cross-country walk
ing, and heavy leather boots with
their tops turned down and tied
above the calf
The women do little to keep alive
the Aphrodite tradition. One of their
sex says of them: "They are rarely
pretty or even good-looking. being