Walls of Nicosia, at the entrance from Larnaca. / Sir Garnet Wolseley’s head-quarters camp, Nicosia.

Title

Walls of Nicosia, at the entrance from Larnaca. / Sir Garnet Wolseley’s head-quarters camp, Nicosia.

Description

Upper view shows the city walls of Nicosia, at the entrance to Larnaca in Cyprus. Lower view shows the headquarters of Sir Garnet Wolseleyder in Chevlik Pasha (the correct name of the village is Pasha Chiftlik, four miles south-west of Larnaca) in Cyprus.

c. 1878

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

Since the Bronze Age, Cyprus has supplied the eastern Mediterranean with copper. In the late Bronze Age, trading cities such as Enkomi arose on Cyprus, which were in close contact with the Levant. To the Hittites and Ugarites, Cyprus (or part of the island) was known as Alašija. In 332 BC the kings of Cyprus passed to Alexander the Great and Cyprus was incorporated into his empire. In 1191, the English King Richard the Lionheart, who helped lead the Third Crusade, conquered the island. Ottoman rule lasted from 1571 to 1878. In 1878, the Ottoman Empire leased the island to Britain in return for support against an advance by the Russians in the Russo-Ottoman War (1877-1878). Efforts by Greek Cypriots to unify Cyprus with Greece led to an uprising in 1931. In 1960 Cyprus became independent as a result of the Zurich and London Agreements between Britain, Greece, and Turkey.