Although The Walls Are
In Several Places Crumbling Into Ruins, They Are Still Imposing In
Appearance, And Present A Clean Front Of Masonry Flanked By Eleven
Bastions, And Entered By Three Gates, Those Of Baffo, Famagousta, And
Kyrenia.
The original ditch can be traced in various places, but the
counterscarp and glacis have been destroyed; therefore the soil has
washed in during the rainy seasons, and to an unpractised eye has
obliterated all traces of the former important work.
On the other hand,
the disappearance of the glacis renders the height of the walls still
more imposing, as they rise for thirty or forty feet abruptly from the
level base, and at a distance maintain the appearance of good condition.
It is difficult to imagine the reason which induced the Venetians to
reproduce Lefkosia after they had demolished the original
fortifications; but it is probable that they had already erected the
cathedral before the expected Turkish invasion rendered the improved
defences necessary. Although in the early days of artillery shell-fire
was unknown, both the Turks and Venetians possessed guns of heavy
calibre far exceeding any that were used in Great Britain until recent
years. The marble shot which are still to be seen in Famagousta are the
same which served in the defence of that fortress in 1571. These are
nearly eleven inches in diameter, while in the fort of Kyrenia the stone
shot are still existing, nineteen inches in diameter, composed of an
exceedingly hard and heavy metamorphic rock.
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