The Richest City in the World

It's hard to believe, (in fact I may still not believe it) but according to our guidebook for about 100 years Famagusta, on the eastern coast of Cyprus, was the world's richest city. It is also rumored to be the setting for Shakesphere's Othello. I won't say I'll read it, because I've never successfully mustered the power to read anything Shakespherian, but I think we'll give the movie a shot. And I'm not afraid of cliff notes. At any rate, there's a ton of cool history in this town, so we decided to check it out.

The old town is a huge walled fortress. In 1571, 8,000 dudes holed up inside managed to fend off over 200,000 invaders for 10 months, inflicting over 50,000 casualties on the invaders. (It was the Venetians versus the Ottomans, I think.) At any rate, maybe they fought so hard knowing what might be coming if they lost. After surrendering, the commander was flayed alive, then skinned and tanned, then mounted like a hunting trophy and paraded around. Yikes!

Here's a couple of pictures of the remains of an old Armenian church. These are for you, Mr. Jamgochian!

This place has quite a bit of fodder for the old imagination, given it's colorful and rich history. My favorite part is the hidden treasure. That's right, there's rumored to be a vast store of gold and loot spirited away in the bowels of the walled city. Apparently, when the Venetians lost the battle in 1571, the merchants were allowed to leave the city alive - but empty handed. Given that they were not known for living in a state of poverty, it's rumored that they hid their loot in secret passages. Secret passages that have yet to be discovered! (Some secret passages have been discovered. But they weren't the gold filled ones.) Expeditions have been mounted to find the treasure even in modern times, to no avail. Below, where the treasure is rumored. Othello's gate.

I like to think it's still in there. Somewhere. Waiting for just the right intrepid Indiana Jonesish explorer. Maybe when we're sailing around the world with Paxson Revel and heretofore unnamed Rugrat #'s 2-4, we'll have to stop by for a little family treasure hunting expedition. (By that time maybe we'll be able to afford the 10 yurtle entry fee. By that time it will be in Euros, so it isn't looking promising.)



There are piles of cannonballs all over the place - the leftovers from the ten month bombardment in that seige of 1571, along with other attacks. Apparently the place was hit with over 100,000 cannonballs. And we think we're so novel with our Shock and Awe. That's old hat around these parts.


Flying buttresses.


After reading the DaVinci Code, I couldn't resist tracking down and photographing these Knights Templar and Hospitaller (Malta) churches:



Just south of Famagusta is the odd resort town of Varosha, also mentioned in The World Without Us. Varosha was seized by the Turks in 1974, and been completely off limits ever since then. In 1974 it was a beach town, full of sky rise condos, like Miami or Palm Beach. Those sky rises have been vacant and unmaintained since then. It's interesting to see what happens after only 33 years with zero maintanence. Thanks for the book recommendation, Mr. Jamgochian.



We weren't sure what the red sign says, but this time we weren't taking any chances on account of the prominently featured weapon. I think it says, "Climb over this fence and explore these buildings, Detroit style," but there's a small chance it says "We will shoot you dead with our American made M-16s if you cross this fence."

After Famagusta we checked out Lefkosa. Lefkosa is also a walled city. Unfortunately, in 1571 Lefkosa's commander wasn't nearly as wily as Famagusta's, which was quite bad news (as mentioned earlier) for the Famagustans. The Lefkosa city got crushed quickly. At any rate, it's now a cool city, split right down the center by a wall. We wandered around for a while before we found the border crossing. Going to South Cyprus was like stepping into a frantic holiday season US shopping mall, complete with Starbucks, Rotten Ronny's, and Greek Denny's. We had been holding out on eating, hoping that costs would be less south of the border. They were, but not by much, and the consensus was to get out of the south and back to the tranquility of the north as soon as possible. So we did.


Here's Senor, all tuckered out back for one last night at the Ship Inn.

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