After a grueling over 24 hour travel day, we made it to Cyprus! Although we had dinner last night at the Marina, today was our first real day of sight seeing. The first place that our tour guide took us to was the ancient ruins of Kourion. These served as a source of hygiene and socialization for the residents of the city. After this, we went to the amphitheater which was what I found most interesting. It was originally used as a theater, but then they removed the first two rows and fenced the stage so that it could be used for animal fights as entertainment. It was later turned into a theater with buildings that unfortunately blocked the beautiful waters that reside behind it. However today these buildings have been removed so the amphitheater overlooks a beautiful body of water that can be seen in the picture that I have attached.
The next site that we visited was the Kolossi Castle. This is a gorgeous building originally built in the 13th century. After entering through a drawbridge that was used in ancient history to block off unwanted guests, we entered a gorgeous main room. There is a second floor and a roof after walking up the narrow spiral staircase. There is a also a basement that leads out to the ground floor. One of the things that I found most interesting was its role in the sugarcane industry. It was a huge producer and trader of sugarcane which made it a popular destination for attacks. This led to a newer and stronger castle which is what we saw today!
One interesting thing that I learned from our tour guide was her intel on the history of the weight of gold. In the ancient Mediterranean times, people learned that 24 Carob seeds were the same weight no matter what weight they used. This in turn was used to measure the weight of gold. They used the 24 equal carob seeds and called them a “carat” which today refers to the amount of the piece of gold that is pure gold. It is almost impossible for a piece to be 24 carats because gold is too soft. Instead, they usually use 18 of the carats (this is where the term “18 carat” comes from) and use the other 6 parts as metal which hardens the gold. I cannot wait to learn more information from our tour guide! She mentioned that when she was in school, she only knew 10% of what she knows now and I cannot wait to grow my pool of knowledge!
