Today we went to three locations in Larnaca which was about an hour from our hotel near the airport we arrived at. Our first stop was at Hala Sultan Tekke to see the mosque and tomb of Umm Haram who is believed to be the sister of the Prophet Mohammed’s foster mother. She is seen as very important since she was related to the Prophet. The mosque is seen as one of the top four most important mosques in Islam. There is also another tomb which is of Hatice Adile Huseyin Ali who was the queen of Jordan. She was buried here because she had escaped to Cyprus in 1925 and when she died her remains could not be returned to Jordan due to conflicts. She was buried here because the mosque has great importance in Muslim culture and her husband was a direct descendant of the Prophet. I had never been in a mosque before and it was very interesting to see the architecture. .

The second location we visited today was Saint Lazarus’s Church in Laranca. The church was built over the tomb believed to be Saint Lazarus. It is believed to be his tomb because there is an inscribed message that reads “Lazarus, four days dead, friend of Christ.” According to the bible Lazarus died and then Jesus rose him from the dead. When we walked into the church is was gorgeous on the inside. Our tour guide, who was the same from yesterday, Demetria told us all about the significance of the architecture and artifacts located throughout the church. She pointed out wood coverings located on the ceiling in a straight line. She explained that there were three domes one for the father, the son, and the holy spirit. There were also tons of pictures called icons located throughout the church that were framed in gold. Demetria told us that she believes it is just wood painted with gold and not actually pure gold.

The final location was Finikoudes Beach where we spent most of our afternoon. It was so much fun getting to spend time with everyone at the beach. I first went out to eat to a local restaurant and got calamari which was good. The four of us then went to the beach to join everyone else. The beach was very different from local beaches in New Jersey. The water was warmer, saltier, and clearer than the water in New Jersey. I went in with a bunch of people and we swam around in the water for a little. We did have to go pretty far since the water was very shallow. It was very windy outside so we tried to stay under the water to keep warm. Another unique thing about the beach was that there were also servers walking around to take food and drink orders so we did not need to go find a restaurant to order from. There were also shops to buy a variety of souvenirs from, but sadly I did not have time to buy any. I had so much fun at the beach with everyone especially just getting to talk and hang out with everyone during our free time.