| NICOSIA |
| A typical Venetian-type Cypriot house. |
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| View from Nicosia |
| The name of the capital city of Northern Cyprus dates back approximately 2,250 years to the original settlement of Ledra, which was later renamed Lefkotheon, but was also sometimes referred to as Ledron. During the Byzantine period the name changed again to Lefkon, meaning poplar grove. There were a great many poplar trees lining the banks of the Pedeios river, so the name was quite apt. Since the seventh century A.D. it has been the capital of Cyprus (except for a brief period during the Venetian period) because the Arab raids made so many coastal settlements unsafe. Nicosia was just far enough inland to escape the worst. The present day capital of the island, it has a population of around 150,000 and it is divided into Turkish and Greek sectors by a boundary known as the `green line' which runs in an east-west direction. Huge, thick ramparts, built by the Venetians in 1570, encircle the city; the walls are three and a half miles long and have eleven towers and three gates. Within these walls are numeruous remains from the middle ages and later periods. Outside, there is no trace of the medieaval settlement that once existed as as materials from those buildings were used at various points in time to restore and maintain the walls. In the old city of Nicosia, beautiful examples of Gothic and Ottoman architecture abound -the Selimiye Mosque, the Bedestan, the Arab Ahmet Mosque, and the Great Han / Inn, to name but a few. |
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| Another view form Nicosia |
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