Today we learned about different religions here in Cyprus by visiting the St. Lazarus Church and Hala Sultan Tekke. Hala Sultan Tekke is a grave site for one of the prophet Muhammad’s companions who spent a great deal of time in Cyprus during the ancient Turkish/ottoman reign over Cyprus. The building is the oldest remnants of the Muslim religion in Cyprus. The grave site is inside an enclosed building which outsiders are not allowed to step in or even look into. Just outside the gravesite building, is an extension which holds the tomb of the wife of a Turkish king during the Turkish reign of Cyprus only a few centuries ago to honor her. The tomb is white with gold writing in Arabic describing the story of their exile to Cyprus. Because of the relation to Muhammad, the tomb’s presence makes this mosque the fourth most important location in Islam, and few observers even know it!
The orthodox Saint Lazarus church in Larnaca’s old city was built to honor the saint, Lazarus. The main portion of the church was built during the Byzantine empire’s reign, while outside additions were put up during gothic times, displaying architecture from thousands of years apart in the same building. Inside the church, there is a standard traditional build except for a few small differences that make the St. Lazarus unique. The elevated sanctuary (the elevated surface where the priest would read the gospel) is generally just one step above the seating area. However in St. Lazarus, it is about six steps higher because underneath the sanctuary are the archeological site of tombs of the missionaries who brought Christianity to the island nation, as well as tombs for babies who didn’t make it past the first stage of life. On the sanctuary, the front wall, always facing east in churches, is made of murals of both important characters in the new testimate as well as scenes from Jesus’s life. Some of these characters are the disciples of Christ and the Virgin Mary. Another notable fact about this church is that it is made of three aisles for seating, and three aligned domes in the roof. Each of the sets of three represent the holy trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The dome shape in the roof represents the heavens, which is derived through the fact that back during ancient times, people believed that the word was flat. In accordance, the heavens spanned in a dome shape above the flat earth, so all churches use domes in the ceiling. However, most commonly churches have just one dome. Back to the outside, in the Gothic portion or the church, murals and scriptures related to Christianity through the ages in Cyprus are stored and mounted to the outside wall to be preserved. Things like tablets of Christ, as well as lamps (of which I’m not entirely sure of the significance of) are stored. The gothic architecture surrounding is built around this premise and adds just a little more culture to this sacred religious building.
In the afternoon, we visited the old city and Finikoudes Bay in Larnaca. At the beach, Myself and the rest of my friends in the program spent most of the day bathing in the sun and bonding with each other. The beach and strip-district like culture of the bay is not too dissimilar from that of the states. The main differences that I noticed were that we had to pay for beach chairs and umbrellas, (I just chose to lay on a towel on the sand) because all of the equipment was owned by the municipality of Larnaca. Another is that waiters and waitresses came around the chairs offering food and drinks to all visitors with ethnic Cyprus choices like chicken kebab with veggies in a peta wrap. The boardwalk-adjacent strip of shops consisted of mostly restaurants, as well as tourist shops selling any merchandise Cyprus has to offer. Another factor to note is the water of the Mediterranean Sea. The water was quite cold given it was 70 degrees Fahrenheit and sunny all day today, because of the recent cold and rainy wave that passed through last weekend. Another interesting characteristic of the bay is how shallow the water is, how little steepness the water exhibits. It took about the length of a football field to get far enough out in the water that I could no longer stand. Finikoudes Bay was my favorite activity of the day because I got to simply relax with all of my friends on the beach and absorb the amazing Cypriot culture.