History

05 Nis 1806

The Catalan traveler Badia y Leblich disguised as Ali Bey el Abbassi, on his way to Meccha, stopped in Cyprus and visited Idalium where he found nothing worthy of notice

 

The Catalan traveler Badia y Leblich disguised as Ali Bey el Abbassi, on his way to Meccha, stopped in Cyprus and visited Idalium where he found nothing worthy of notice: 

I left the capital at quarter past eight, and crossed the great plain in a S.E. direction: then crossing some clay hills, I turned S. about half past eleven, and following the left bank of a very small river, which we crossed at noon, soon entered Idalium. This place, once so famous for its groves, is only a wretched village, situated in a valley almost entirely surrounded by hills of pure clay, absolutely barren and most melancholy. The houses are miserable and badly built, the inhabitants extremely poor: there are just a few trees and vegetable gardens, wheat and barley alone are sown. In short, the modern Idalium, which resembles the poorest village in the plains of the Beauce, is as sad a place as you can imagine. The people of the place believe that the ancient Idalium was on a slight mound, a mile away from the modern village. I went there, but saw no relic of antiquity. But I saw quite clearly the peak of the Palace of the Queen. Finding nothing worthy of notice I started again at a quarter past two.