For our second day of the program, we traveled back to the place we first landed on the island, Larnaca, to explore some important religious sites and enjoy time at the beach. To start our day, we had a one-hour bus ride from our hotel in Limassol to Larnaca, where we were able to pass the time by observing the beautiful countryside of the island, and listening to a very interesting talk from our tour guide about the history of Cyprus. One of the most interesting things she touched on in this talk was a conversation she had with an archaeologist who studies Cyprus. She told us that according to this source, the furthest back manmade structures in Cyprus can be dated to is about 7500 BC. This was very fascinating to me, showing just how extensive the history of civilization on this island is.

For our first stop of the day, we visited the Hala Sultan Tekke Mosque. This is a very important spot for Turkish Cypriot Muslims to come and worship, and we got to see the separate prayer rooms for men and women this Mosque. Unfortunately, no visitors were allowed in the tomb of Umma Haram, but we got to look in from the outside while our tour guide talked about the history and significance of this site to within the context of the islands history.

We then traveled to the St. Lazarus Church, a large building in the city of Larnaca with a beautiful interior. This is a Greek Orthodox church, which contained many distinct architectural styles when observed from the outside. The downstairs area of this church was in the original ground level of the town, and contained several tombs that we were able to observe.

Finally, we finished the day by enjoying time at the amazing beaches in Larnaca. It was a great, sunny day on the island and the water felt nice and cool, but definitely not uncomfortably cold. The beach was unique from many other beaches I have visited in that it lacked many waves and was very shallow for a ways out into the water, but this made for great swimming conditions. I was glad to be able to get in a good amount of swimming in this beautiful setting, as it is something I enjoy but can’t do nearly enough.