Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/106

 CHAPTER II. CYPRUS AND CYPRIOT SCULPTURE. i. The Situation, Soil and Climate of the Island. Cyprus (Kvtrpo? with the Greeks, Kibris with the Turks) is the most eastern of all the Mediterranean islands. It is the third in size, being excelled only by Sicily and Sardinia. It lies in a kind of deep pocket, its northern and eastern coasts being at about equal distances, respectively, from Cilicia and Syria. Its northern shores, however, are much more rocky and inhospitable than those that face south and east, so that we may say the island fronted Syria and was destined by nature to receive its early inhabitants and first lessons in civilization from that country. The chief port is now Larnaca, close upon the site of the ancient Kition, about twelve hours steaming from Alexandretta, the best port on the Syrian Coast, and only seven from Tripoli. The form of the island is peculiar. The ancients compared it to a fleece spread out upon the ground, but their ideas of the shapes even of the countries they knew best were very inaccurate. Herr Von Loeher's com- parison to a ham is less dignified but much more exact. 1 However, the contour of the island is of less importance than the nature of its surface and the arrangement of its mountains, plains and rivers. From this point of view Cyprus is divided into three well-marked districts of an equal size and fertility. In the centre there is a great plain, the Mesoria, whose situation may be guessed from its name (^aov-opos). The streams by which it is watered flow, some eastwards to the Gulf of Salamis, others westwards to the bay 1 VON LOEHER, Cypern, Reiseherichte nach natur und Landschaft, valk und Geschichte, vol. 8vo. Stuttgart, 1878.