St Barnabas;
St Barnabas was born in Salamis and was the son of a Jewish family. He began his Christianity work with Apostle Paul in the 45 AD. As a result of his Christian teachings, he was killed by Jews. The followers of St Barnabas secretly took his body from the Jews and buried him with St Mathew's Bible in a cave under a carob tree. The followers then fled for their lives back to Egypt. It was not until Bishop Anthemios, who saw the burial site in a dream, did the excavation of St. Barnabas' body ocurr. The remains were then taken to Istanbul and the burial site was made into a Monastery and church.
A view of the Monastery
Some paintings on display at St Barnabas
Our tour guide and the displays of paintings
A burial excavation site
The church
The grave in the church
Salamis;
Excavations show that the city of Salamis dates back to the 11th Century BC. Salamis was an important trading center and a rich city. The first coins from this area were minted in the 6th Century BC with the inscriptions of the name of Salamis on it. Thus; the name of the city. This area was under many different rulers (for example; Alexander the great) which affected the look and build of the city. Due to earthquakes, the harbor being silted up, and the raids of Arab pirates the city came to an end around 648 AD.
The Roman Theatre
The boys at the top of the theatre seating area
The Gymnasium area and the columns surrounding it
A bath positioned in the corner of the gymnasium area
Famagusta;
The fall of Salamis gave way to the inhabitants to flee and settle into the nearby small lagoon town originally called Arsinoe. The town was later renamed Famagust (Gazimagusa). This town grew from a mass exodus of Christians from Syria and Palestine. King Henry II offered these fleeing Christians asylum at Famagusta and made his city into a "royal city".
The city continued to grow and was one of the wealthiest cities. Also the city became an important trade route between Asia and Egypt. AND as history repeats itself with important rich cities... A rivalry between powers Genoa and Venice caused riots and wars. By the time the Venetians took hold of it 1489 the city was half empty.
In 1571 the Ottoman forces arrived and there was a ten month battle for the city with 8,000 Venetians fighting against 200,000 Ottomans. In the end the Venetians surrendered. Many more battles took place, but the last war happened in 1963 with the Turkish army fighting against the Greeks. In the end, the Greeks fled and the Turkish army sealed off the inner city of Famagusta called Varosha (1974). This part of the city is known as; “ghost city” of Varosha. This area is gated off with heavy fencing and military to ensure that no one accesses that part of the city.
A Christian church transformed into the mosque;
Lala Mustafa Pasa
Overall view of the church
The "ghost city" as you can see the fencing and gated area with houses in the background
Photo provided by internet showing the fencing and sign stating no access... Military
Our thoughts;
This tour was great! All the boys had a great time. It was all about climbing, exploring, and seeing very old sites. Our tour guide had great information about each site we were viewing. Note; we were the only family with kids. The other tourists were actually older Germans who were on a two week vacation in Cyprus. They loved our boys and the boys loved the attention from all the tourists and the tour guide. It was a win win for us and our full day of site seeing.
