There Is A Peculiar Advantage
Throughout The Ports Of Cyprus In The Presence Of Stone Quarries Upon
The Spot Where
The material is required; this is specially marked at
Kyrenia, where the solid rock, with its tombs, cave-dwellings, and
Ancient quarries, is on the actual borders of the sea, within a few
yards of the existing harbour. There would be no great difficulty in
converting these quarries into a dock, should a demand for stone be
sufficient to repay the outlay for cutting the supply, according to the
example already exhibited and left to us by the ancients.
The quarries of Kyrenia form the chief curiosity of the locality. The
rock is the sedimentary limestone mixed with a proportion of sand that
is the characteristic geological feature around the coast of Cyprus; but
in these quarries the stone is perfectly solid and free from fissures,
which enables the mason to obtain blocks of any size. From prehistoric
times the rock of Kyrenia, which rises about forty feet above the
sea-level, has been worked out upon the most careful method; every block
has been cut from the parent mass by measurement, and no broken edges
have been permitted to destroy the symmetry of the adjoining stone. The
work was commenced from the top, or surface of the rock, and a smooth
cliff face has been produced as the first operation; upon completion the
surface has been lined out parallel with the perpendicular face, and the
blocks have been carefully chiselled and removed by wedges driven
horizontally from beneath.
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