The Road to Kyrenia
The road from Nicosia to Kyrenia has inspired practically every foreign traveller to Cyprus. They all wrote of the beauty of the landscape, the views and the smells of the flora on the mountainous trails, especially those leading to Bellapais.
In 1863, the French architect and antiquarian Edmond Duthoit travelled on this path and wrote:
“From Nicosia we went to Kyrenia along the most beautiful path in the world, leading half way up the valley or rather in a deep ravine full of myrtles and pink laurels, the town itself situated by the sea, being very picturesque. Bella is the jewel in the crown of the island, nowhere have I seen anything so beautiful nor such rich countryside. Anywhere one turns one’s eye the view changes but it is always ravishing, nothing is more beautiful than the view from the abbey seen from the East when the sun is about to take its dip into the sea. The mountains take on the most beautiful and varied colours passing successively from brilliant red to strong blue. The sea takes on similar shades and as for the sky, it is indescribable, it has an amazing purity.”
Drawings by Edmond Duthoit can be seen on the ground floor of CVAR.
The ‘Did You Know’ series is made possible with the support of OPAP (Cyprus).
