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Salamis ruins
Northern Cyprus Salamis
Ruins
HISTORY OR LEGEND?
What little is known about the early remains of Salamis
relies mostly on legend. It is believed that Teucer
founded a settlement here at the end of the Trojan
War. He is thought to have fallen out with his father Telamon, who banished him from his homeland.
After landing on the northern shores on the beach of the
Achaens, Teucer and his followers crossed the Karpas
Peninsula and founded a township at the mouth of the
Pedios River. Teucer named the town Salamis after the
island of his birth. There was probably little development
until around 1200BC when the inhabitants of the nearby
city of Enkomi discovered that their harbour was
silting up and it was essential to find new Access for
shipping if the copper exports were not to suffer. Salamis was
the nearest and most logical place to develop.
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Before the eight century BC Salamis was the most important
commercial centre on the island and by the sixth
century BC was being referred to in
ancient texts with regard to the payment of taxes to the
Assyrian Overlords. Attempted revolt against the Persian rulers failed and it
was not
until Alexander the Great demolished the might of the
Persian Empire in
334BC that stability returned to the island. he Empire of
Alexander spread far, and after his death the governing
powers of Cyprus were the Hellenistic dynasty ruling Egypt,
the Ptolemys. However there were still kings in each of the
island's city kingdoms
and the last king of Salamis, Nicocreon, fought against the
armies of |
Ptolemy only to be vanquished and forced to commit suicide
along with his
entire family around 295BC.
Maras
Northern Cyprus
The once prosperous suburb
of Maras or Varosha, now lies behind the Atilla line (the
border which divides the country) and is easily visible
from the Palm Beach Hotel. It is an expanse of hotels and
flats, built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Much of it
lines the sandy shore for which this area is so famous. It
was extremely popular with tourists, and anyone visiting
Cyprus in the early 1970s would probably have stayed in
this area. Due to the political stalemate it remains in
the hands of the Turkish Cypriot authorities. It is
strictly forbidden to photograph any part of this area.
About Northern Cyprus :
http://www.cypnet.com/.ncyprus/root.html
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