Today we visited a few castles near Limassol. We got to the first castle, the Kolossi Crusader Castle in the Kurion Ancient City, which was different that some Scottish and English castles people were expecting. This is because of the time period, the castle was built Kolossi castle was originally built in the 13th century, and rebuilt in its present form in the 15th century. This castle served as the headquarters of the Knights Hospitaller, who used it as a stronghold to defend the southern coast of Cyprus from enemy attacks. Inside the castles we were able to see inscriptions and paintings on the walls . There was one large painting on the wall that still had half of a French coat of arms on the corner.  

We also learned about the strategic architecture of the castles. The small holes in the side were for bow and arrow slits and the larger sizes were for bigger weapons. It’s also so cool to see evidence of the gotchu period in this country. 

Then we had a group lunch at Agios Eremogenis Beach which was one of the only long flat beaches I have seen in Cyrprus. It looked the most similar to beaches where I am from.

Then we saw the Limassol castle, it was built during the ottoman empire and was very different than the other castle. There were long dark hallways and an amazing view form the roof. The presence of royal life in Cyprus is so interesting to see because it is so different than in America where reeling and state are a lot more separate. In American political views and leaders with political and monetary power are commonly viewed higher than religions leaders.

You can see evidence of all the different the past ages in the country, there were many different different types of arches from different period you could see while walking through the streets.