2019 Cyprus - Day 2 Ancient Salamis, Buffavanto Castle

About 5 miles north of Famagusta lies the ancient Greek city-state of Ancient Salamis. Legend says that the city was founded around 1180 BC (late Bronze Age) by Teucer, a veteran of the Trojan Wars and brother of Ajax. Salamis flourished and expanded into the premier port and erstwhile capital of Cyprus. The city’s lineage reflects that of Cyprus in general. After the Greeks, the city was ruled by the Assyrians, the Persians, Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies of Egypt, the Romans and the Byzantines. Each culture left its mark. The city required frequent rebuilding over the centuries following earthquakes and tidal waves. Eventually the once-fine harbor silted over and the city was slowly abandoned. By the 7th century, it was a ghost town. Many of its stones were eventually removed to construct the buildings and walls of Famagusta. Eventually Salamis was all but forgotten. Today it is one of the finest archeological sites on the island. However, after visiting Jerash last week in Jordan, it lost a little of its luster for us.

There is a beautiful beach just outside the entrance to Salamis. The port may be gone, but swimmers have a fine place.

Our guidebook cautioned against wearing open-toed shoes due to snakes throughout the site. We complied, and were happy to not see any snakes.

There is a partially rebuilt theatre from the time of Augustus. The sign said it once held 30,000 spectators, but given its present size, that's hard to imagine. Perhaps it used to have higher rows of seats. 

Salamis' water supply came from Kythrea via a 31 mile aqueduct. Most of the aqueduct was destroyed in the 7th century, but parts are still visible today. 

The aqueduct was adjacent to a large bath complex with an underfloor heating system. The baths included sweating rooms, hot water baths, cold rooms swimming pools and a stoking room for the hot water supply.

The loveliest part of Salamis was the gymnasium courtyard with marbled columns.

A mosaic floor paved the way from this exercise area to the baths. So prudent of the Romans to place the gymnasium near the pools.

There are parts of Salamis we did not see: an agora, Templar of Zeus, a Roman villa. The sprawling site is not fully excavated and the other buildings weren't visible from where we were. Salamis deserves more than the 2 hours we could stay.

There is also a beautiful beach there. 

 

We headed northwest to our next destination. The sharp, jagged Kyrenia mountain range parallels the coast in northeastern Cyprus. A series of castles were built in these mountains, probably during the Byzantine era, to serve as watchtowers and strongholds along the coast. The ruins of Buffavento Castle perch at 3120 ft, offering a sweeping view along the northern coast to watch for pirate invaders, across the plains to the south, and to sister castles to the distant east and west. The castle was considered virtually impenetrable due to its precarious location and its single entry point (see the YouTube link below). The castle nonetheless surrendered to Richard the Lionheart after its sister castles to the east and west fell to him in 1191. After that, it served as a prison and watchtower, still connected by beacons to the other castles. 

Drone footage of Buffavanto Castle 

https://youtu.be/jbHiW2ut-04

We turned off the main road as it peaked at a pass through the Kyrenian mountains, and drove 4 miles up a narrow, hard-packed one lane road to the parking lot below Buffavento Castle. The drive is a bit harrowing, edging a steep drop off to the valley below. There are no guardrails and we had to navigate around the occasional suitcase size rocks that had tumbled into the  road. 

As we took the last climb before the parking lot, a couple of goats came out of the brush. They froze. We froze. Then they ran straight at the car, swerving at the last minute and bounded up the mountain.

We were glad to see other cars in the parking lot. There was no ticket booth. We'd read there are 600 steps up, but that hardly does the climb justice as it's a 1,000 foot vertical climb in the sun. ( It's mostly ramped switchbacks). We hadn't been sure if we'd actually hike to the castle, but the trail was in much better shape than we'd expected. 

Castle is at center top 

Getting closer

Looking north to the Mediterranean when the trail crossed to the other side of the ridge

Views at the top:

The hike down was a lot easier. The plan was to get to the northern port city of Kyrenia before dark, but we failed. We spent at least an hour trying to find the right roundabout and then were trapped in a series of tiny one-way alleys. We circled around a few times until we finally decided to save our marriage and just park (an adventure in itself) and walk to the hotel.