Richard And Jo Demeester's photos with the keyword: Republic of Cyprus

This map shows the walled town section of Lefkosia (Nicosia) leaving out the north/south division. It is a good map to show the shape of the Venetian built medieval walls – sort of like a snow flake, or a cross section of plant on a microscope slide.

Another beautiful mosaic with another Greek tale, of Theseus and the Minotaur.

Some tombs near Pafos recreated buildings for the living, with columned courtyards.

From the House of Dionysus, Pafos. This mosaic is from the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, a Greek tragedy, where Pyramus discovers a tiger with Thisbe's veil and assumes that his love has been devoured, so kills himself. Thisbe is actually in hiding from the tiger, and when she comes out to find her lover dead, uses his sword to kill herself also. They ain't called “tragedies” for nothing!

Pussy cat lounging in the ruins of the Pafos Archaeological Site.

Called the Tombs of the Kings, there is an area near Pafos where hundreds of graves were created over a 600 year period. They are called the Tombs of the Kings because some were obviously resting places for important or wealthy citizens.

Did you know that olive trees live this long? A 700 year old tree in the heart of Polis, western Cyprus. There are some groups who fight to keep these old trees listed as national monuments to protect them. They are truly beautiful trees.

There is a soccer pitch in the foreground, and then barbed wire and barrels and the United Nations watchtower, marking the buffer zone of no-man's-land. The imposing wall on the left is one of the impressive spade shaped bastions on Lefkosia's fantastic Venetian medieval walls.

Looking down from the Aphrodite Trail on to the Akamas Peninsula in western Cyprus.

Well, when these barrels were put in place, there were assumptions they would only be temporary. After all, how long could Lefkosia remain divided? 30 something years later... The building behind is abandoned, and lies in no-man's-land.

A richly decorated cloister. The passages have murals and frescoes and mosaics with Biblical stories as well as the tales of many saints.

I am not a botanist. It is a flower. It is in Cyprus. It is pretty.

Atop one of the original gates in the medieval walls, the southern (Republic of Cyprus) forces have created a strengthened position. The passage under the wall can be used. The paths and steps up the walls end abruptly at solid walls with firing slits for guns. The Turkish side, over the “Green Line”, is actually off to the right side of the photo (i.e. walking under the wall has you still on the same side of Cyprus, but outside of the old city, if that makes sense). But, this is a very significant point, as both sides hold their positions strongly, the buffer zone between them is almost non-existent, and this puts the foes within spitting distance of each other. Four flags flutter at each other here – Greek and Cyprus versus Turkish and North Cyprus. Sorry, couldn't get the flags in a photo as they were in the “do not photograph here” zones.

“He climbed to the top of a Sycamore tree, For the Lord he wanted to see!” A mural from one of the passages of the highly decorated monastery at Kykkos.

Church of Agios Lazaros, Larnaka. For those who are not familiar with your Bibles, Lazarus was a friend of Jesus. When he died, his sisters said to Jesus that he would have been able to cure Lazarus from his illness and stop his death. Jesus called Lazarus to rise from his grave, which he did. Now, for everyone, Lazarus went on to live a long and fruitful life, and when he died (the second time, at a riper age), his body was laid at this site in Cyprus. The remains were taken to France sometime in the Middle Ages by Crusaders, but the tomb where he was first laid is still visited in the crypt here.

A priest and a monastic dog peer down from a balcony.

Cyprus was once ruled by the Venetians. The interior is (was?) rich with copper. The Venetians used camels to transport this rich resource to the coast. They built a series of bridges, which remain, although the trails themselves have long since disappeared. They are beautifully proportioned medieval structures.

These Lady-Bird Beetles have markings which look almost like pig faces! The trail we walked around the summit of Mt Olympus had thousands of them.