The Tomb Of Lazarus, Who Is Believed To
Have Settled In Cyprus To Avoid Persecution After His Miraculous
Resurrection From The Grave, Is To Be Seen In The Church Of St. George
Within The Principal Town.
From this point an excellent view is obtained of the adjacent country.
A
plain of most fertile soil extends along the sea-coast towards the east
for six miles, and in breadth about four miles. The present town of
Larnaca stands on the sea-board of this plain, which to the west of the
port continues for about four miles, thus giving an area of some ten
miles in length, forming almost a half circle of four miles in its
semi-diameter; the whole is circumscribed by hills of low but increasing
altitudes, all utterly barren. Through the plain are two unmistakable
evidences of river-action which at some remote period had washed down
from the higher ground the fertile deposit which has formed the alluvium
of the valley. Within this apparently level plain is a vestige of a once
higher level, the borders of which have been denuded by the continual
action of running water during the rushes from the mountains in the
rainy season. This water action has long ceased to exist. There can be
little doubt that in the ancient days of forest-covered mountains, the
rainfall of Cyprus was far greater than at present, and that important
torrents swept down from the hill-sides. We see evidences of this in the
rounded blocks, all water-worn, of syenite and gneiss, which are
intermingled with the bits of broken pottery in the vale, alike relics
of the past and proving the changes both in nature and in man since
Cyprus was in the zenith of prosperity.
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