Photos

The ancient city of Salamis was at one time (about 2000 years ago) the capital of Cyprus. As you may be aware Cyprus, sitting in the middle of the medeteranean, has been a stepping off post for most invasions in the area and has itself been occupied by the Romans, Assyrians, Egyptians and Persians to name but a few. In fact the ownership of Cyprus is still in dispute with the Turks still controlling this northern part.

The ruins covers an area of approximately a square mile along the coast and is bordered on one side by sweet smelling pine and eucalyptus trees.

The city was cast into ruins when in 76AD a severe earthquake struck the city. The different sized columns were put ou at different times first by Trajan and Hadrian when they built a gymnasium (which again was destroyed by another earthquake in 331 AD), the Christians set up new columns which they dragged from the Roman theatre.

The theatre at the site has acapacity of 15,000 and is an amazing specticle on its own, you can sit where a Roman would have sat centuries before.

The highlights of Salamis are (tick them off as you walk around)
1. Gymnasium and Baths
2. Theatre
3. Roman Villa
4. Kampanopetra Basilica
5. Ayios Epiphanios Basilica
6. Agora (stone Forum) - meeting and market place
7. Temple of Zeus - Roman period temple
8. Water Resevoir - roman water system inc 50km aqueduct!!

It was not till about 674 AD when another Arab invasion brought about the destruction of the entire city that the inhabitants fled to build the medieval town of Famagusta (Magusa) to the south.

The archeological site is one of the gems of Cyprus as they are both vast and are in a wonderful state of preservation. I have visited Pompei in Italy and the sites look very similar as do the types of artefacts that have survived. For more than a thousand years, the Roman city of Salamis lay buried in sands which saved the site from wanton robing of materials.

I visited the site in July this year and it was already hot. There is not much amenity at the site so really you need to take plenty of water and lunch. It will take most of the day to explore if you do it properly, like most of these excavations one of the most interesting things to look out for is the ancient grafiti!!
If you need a break from the ruins go for a walk in the woods or gaze out to sea.

The bottom line is:
The ruins are spectacular the scale and the insight into life they provide probably cannot be found anywhere else in Europe. The best thing about these ruins is the lack of tourists (because of the North/South situation)… instead you're highly unlikely to encounter a swarm of fellow sightseers. But now the border between the Greek south and Turkish north of Cyprus has been open for a little while and tourism is on the increase so now is the time to go before the magic is gone.