History

20 Mar 1815

The British traveller William Turner visited the site of ancient Idalium

The British traveller William Turner visited the site of ancient Idalium:

Mr. H. having been kind enough to lend me his horse, a small grey of the country, with an English saddle, at a quarter before seven I set off with Ibrahim, one of Mr V.’s janizaries, mounted on a small mule, to visit the site of the ancient Idalium, famous for the death of Adonis. It is now a small village, five leagues’ (hours’) distance from Larnaca, a little more than half-way between that town and Nicosia. Our road lay through an extensive plain of a dry but fruitful soil, not one-tenth part of which was cultivated, and that by a miserable wooden plough, drawn by two oxen or mules. The plain is bordered by mountains very insignificant in height, which bore a singular appearance from their tops being naked and of a sandy white, while their base was covered with brown moss. Along the road, which, however, was in general too stony to need or admit any care, I observed some remains of a brick pavement, probably Venetian…