Monday November 19th - Kyrenia again

Today was designated a free day, and we had tried unsuccessfully to persuade some others in our group that we should make a joint expedition to the Karpaz peninsula, the long finger-like peninsula that stretches out to the east of Cyprus. It is a mostly unspoiled region with wild donkeys and some interesting ruins. However, it apparently needs a group of 8 for such a trip, and we were unable to find 6 other people. 

Paul didn’t fancy a further trip to Nicosia, going to the Greek side this time, so we took the opportunity of visiting parts of Kyrenia we hadn’t previously had time to visit properly.

We walked down to the harbour and this time stopped to take photographs. It was a mostly bright sunny day and quite warm, but a few clouds crossed the sky just at the moment I was trying to take photos, so the weather was really a lot nicer than it looks in this photo. 

This shows the castle in the background, with the long passage into the harbour in the centre of the photo. You can also see the variety of different craft in the harbour, including one of the two sailing ships. But most of the boats appear to be pleasure craft, I didn’t see anything that looked like a fishing boat. Perhaps they are to be found moored elsewhere.

We also took the opportunity of wandering right round the castle. It used to have a moat.

You can see that there is now a road where the moat used to be. The arched bridge is the only entrance to the castle, and it is quite narrow. The moat went round two sides of the castle, and the other two sides were protected by the sea. We were able walk all round the castle as there is now a road between the castle and the sea, though previously when the castle was used for defence I imagine the sea lapped against the walls.

You can see from this how massive the walls were. There’s a blue car on the left of my photo, and just out of my photo but in front of the car is a huge rock with a metal hoop that looks to have been for mooring a boat at some time in the past. So clearly the sea was a lot higher and closer to the castle walls at one time.

The harbour is surrounded by some old buildings and some new ones.

Many of the older buildings have been renovated. However, another reason for this photo is the mountain behind the buildings. That peak you can see is the one with St Hilarion castle on it, so you can appreciate how it looked over Kyrenia in the past.

We took the opportunity of going into a delightful little museum which was a carob warehouse and an old Cyprus house. The slopes are steep behind the harbour, so the houses could be two or three storeys at the front in the north, facing the harbour, but only one or two storeys at the back facing the south. The lowest storey on the harbour side was mainly used as a warehouse for storing carob or other products like olive oil, wine or timber for export, though other goods were traded as well. This design of house has been used since the Middle Ages. 

The downstairs warehouse part of the museum was used to show a grinding mechanism for grinding the carob seeds, and for showing the variety of large pottery jars used for storage. Upstairs is the entrance from the street on the south side, and this is used for showing how the carob syrup is manufactured. This was obviously mostly done at home as a cottage industry. The carob seeds were first ground up and steeped in water for 24 hours in that rectangular wooden container you can see in my photo below.

Next, cleaned logs are placed between two chairs and a wicker basket placed on top. You can see the arrangement in the photo. Cheesecloth is placed into the bottom of the basket, and the carob seeds and water are poured in. The juice from the carob seeds is strained through the cloth and flows into that metal vessel you can see under the chairs. When it is full, the liquid is boiled - you can see a boiler on a tripod arrangement at the bottom of the photo. Froth rises and is skimmed off, and gradually the liquid becomes thicker and reaches almost a jelly-like consistency, so it is poured into storage containers and can be kept for years. 

You might wonder what it’s used for - I certainly did. It has a high natural sugar content, so is mostly used in the food industry, though it is also used in the pharmaceutical industry and in cosmetics. Apparently, according to the information in the museum, it is also a sort of general panacea! It is supposed to lower blood pressure, as well as helping the body to throw off radiation! It is full of calcium, so it is good for osteoporosis sufferers. It is said to be very good for the digestion and various stomach complaints, as well as helping to get rid of worms. It is full of zinc and various vitamins and is also supposed to be good for skin diseases. I think I’d better get some! 

Further upstairs is set out as an old Cypriot house, with a loom for weaving and a mechanism for spinning. These were also,cottage industries.

The loom is hardly visible here on the far left, almost out of the picture, but the mechanism for holding the spun thread is on the left. Carpentry was also a local industry and many things were stored in chests like the one here. I particularly liked the charcoal irons displayed on the chest, which I can remember from my childhood in Africa.

There was also a room set out as a bedroom. The bed was the main feature of this photo, but on the right of the photo is the edge of the wardrobe, and just out of the photo, a chair. Chair making was another local industry.

There was a fascinating film, made in 1930, about the life of Cypriot peasants, showing them using many of the artefacts that are now in this Museum. It was all very interesting, and we stayed far longer than we would have thought. 

After that, we returned to our hotel to rest and sit on our balcony in the sun. 

That’s the view from our balcony.

We didn’t have an active afternoon, we had a rest. Yesterday was quite exhausting and tomorrow is also going to be a very active day, so we are conserving our strength!