We arrived at Limassol, Cyprus, a southern port, this morning at 8 am. A few words are in order describing the troubled history of the island of Cyprus. Cyprus is one of the oldest civilizations of the world rivaling the Mesopotamia area in now Iraq. Artifacts have been found that go back to 9,000 BC in 1900's archeological excavations. Cyprus has 2 main features - it a stepping stone tying together 3 continents - Europe, Asia and Africa and it contains copper (whereby it got its name) and bronze metals. Cyprus has been n occupied by the French, Venetians, Ottoman Empire and now contains the only divided capital in the world - Nicosia ( the other one formerly Berlin). The excavated artifacts go back to the Hellenistic period. The British took over Cyprus in 1923 after WWI and the ouster of the Ottoman Empire, The British promised the Cypriots independence which was not fulfilled until 1955 when they revolted against British rule. In 1960 they became an independent republic with 2 stipulations - they would accept the British consitution and the President would be a Greek and the VP would be a Turk. In 1974, the Turkish military invaded northern Cyprus where there capital, Nicosia, and resort coast tourism existed. The Greeks werre given 1 hr. to evacuate to the south where the southern government built refugee camps as temporary residence s for the evacuees. The United Natiions was involved in sorting out the problem and today in 2012 the Greeks evacuees bitterly await the sorting out by the United Nations. The refugee camps are not like Gaza or the West bank in Israel, but hardly what the people left in the north. We only heard the Greek version, but religious freedom and rights were issues involved in this island country, as is evident in other Mediterranean/Mideast areas. Persecution exists under whoever holds the power. We visited the checkpoint (the flag pic below) in old Nicosia.
Some other interesting facts. Since 1974, tourism as developed in Limassol, the southern port with 5-star hotels evident on beautiful bay areas. The driver is on the right side of the car, but they drive on the left side of the road. New buildings have water tanks with solar panels on top of the buildings - very ugly, but totally greeen. Through previous occupatiions by royalty, the Cypriots feel cats have the souls of previous queens - they love cats, but will not allow them to be inside their homes - therefore you see cats all over, well fed and friendly. Dogs have strict laws still on the books due to a rabies epidemic in the 1950's and are rarely seen due to strict inspectiion laws and quarantine periods.
After disembarking in Limassol, we drove 40 miles to Nicosia, the "divided capital" shared by the Turks and the Greeks. We visited 2 outstanding museums - the Byzantine Musem at the Univ. of Cyprus where we got a complete descriptiion of the religious icon (as opposed to the computer icon - so very different). No photos were allowed there. We then visited the Archeological Museum seeing artifacts going back 9,000 yrs (many pics below of that). The oldest glass object in the world is located there as well as detailed figues, mostly intact, that explain the various cultures that have existed in Cyprus. We spent time after lunch, wandering and shopping in the old city. I never would have dreamed of the many archeological sites under excavation in Cyprus.
Tomorrow we land in Haifa and will spend 2 days and a night in Israel. The ship has already decided not to venture south to pick us up at Ashdod (a port city dirrectly between Tel Aviv and Gaza) and will stay at Haifa where we will rejoin the ship.
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