Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/108

 86 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. stones and marly strata. Its ramifications extend over the whole south and south-west of the island ; it is in the latter district that the main summit, the mount Troodos of which the Olympus of the ancients was but a spur, rises to a height of between six and seven thousand feet. Many summits in its neighbourhood are nearly as high, but none of them have been measured with any exactitude. The flanks of this southern chain descend to the valley in gentle slopes, leaving much space to the cultivator. In many places the spurs of Olympus fall easily to the sea leaving wide land-bays of fertile earth on which man has lonp- found himself at his ease. T. _ e.ooo.ooo O MO SO So fo _ FIG. 70. Map of Cyprus. 1 The most famous cities of antiquity were situated in this region, Kition, Amathos, Curion, the old and the new Paphos. Even now prosperous and well-peopled villages stud the coast. The light and pebbly soil of these southern slopes is marvellously well adapted for the vine. The climate of Cyprus varies greatly according to the season. A third of the year, from the middle of October to the end 1 This map has been compiled from those of M. KIEPERT, one in the new edition of his Atlas von Hellas, and another published in 1878 as a New and Original Ma/> of the Island of Cyprus (Reimer).