History

13 Feb 1801

13 February 1801: Colonel Leake made a brief crossing from Greece to Cyprus, for a few days

Colonel Leake made a brief crossing from Greece to Cyprus, for a few days:

The ramparts of the Venetian fortifications of Lefkosia exist in tolerable preservation. But the ditch is filled up and there is no appearance of there ever having been a covert way. There are thirteen bastions: the ramparts are lofty and solid, with orillons and retired flanks. In the town is a large church converted into a mosque, and still bearing, like the great mosque in Constantinople, the Greek name of St Sophia. It is said to have been built by Justinian, but this may be doubted, as Procopius, in his works of the edifices of that emperor, makes no mention of it. And its Gothic style seems rather to mark it for the work of one of the Frank kings of Cyprus.”