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Rich in History
Pre – Neolithic 10000 – 8200BC
There are only a few places in Cyprus that can prove human life during this period. One of them is at a site on the river Tremithos near the village of Agia Anna just a few kilometers from Larnaca. It’s the first period of human presence on the Island and the local primitives like to hunt and eat among other animals the pigmy elephants and hippopotamus of Cyprus, which became extinct. Bones of these rare local species can be seen at the Paleontology Museum of the town at Europe Square.
Neolithic 8200 – 3900BC
The most well known Neolithic life on the island developed along the sides of Maroni and Vasilopotamos rivers about 25 kilometers west of Larnaca. Chirokitia is considered to be the first urban settlement of Europe. Recent discoveries on a site of the Larnaca Salt Lake, at Hala Sultan Teke proved that the Neolithic man of Cyprus inhabited the area of the town, too. At the site of ancient Kition several movable Neolithic equipment were also discovered. Excellent handmade pieces of the period from Larnaca area are exhibited at the Archaeological District Museum and at the Pierides Museum.
Chalcolithic 3900 – 2500BC
This is the period that early human civilizations discover the use of copper. In the Larnaca area the most well known copper mines are at Troulli, Kalavasos and Shia villages at short distance from Larnaca. Many findings of this period, especially made of clay, decorate the museums mentioned above.
Bronze Age 2500 – 1050BC
The most populated part of the island during the Bronze Age in Cyprus is the Larnaca area. Archaeological findings prove life, besides Larnaca, at Oroklini, Pyla, Livadia, Aradippou, Dromolaxia, Kiti, and Athienou villages. The trading of copper and other products of the island with the important civilizations of the Mediterranean needed ports. Larnaca became one of the first ports of Cyprus with urban life and is continuously inhabited without interruptions for about 4 thousand years. Tombs in the city proved trade exchanges with Egypt since the year 2000 BC. Starting from the 13th century the town was known as “Kition” and its foundation myth goes back to the time of Noah and the great flood. Genesis, the first Book of the Old Testament implies that the founder of Kitium was “KITIM”, the grandson of Noah, the son of Jovan (Ion), who was the father of all Greeks. During the 2nd millennium BC the pre-Hellenic population of the town had trade exchanges with all civilizations of the area, mainly because Cyprus was the major copper-producer of the known world. In the Museums of the town there is rich evidence of the contacts with Egypt, the Aegean, the Minoans of Crete, the Hittites and the civilizations of the Syro-Palestinian coast. During the second millennium BC the trade and religious connections of the town with the Pharaoh civilization are especially intense.
Geometric Period 1050 – 750BC
Kition received the great Greek - Mycenaean colonization on the 13th century BC and the Phoenician colonization on the 9th century BC. Surviving architectural remains of the 12th century are the cyclopean walls, and of the 9th the temple of Astarte – Aphrodite, which was build by the same Phoenician architecture that the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem was build in the same period, and is described in the Old Testament. These architectural remains can be visited at the site called “Ancient Kition”. Phoenician colonization connected the city with Tyre and for some time it was governed by Tyrian princesses. The name of this historical period in Cyprus is called Geometric because the decorating fashion on the local produced pottery was mostly geometric.
Archaic Period 750 - 480BC
After the Assyrian conquest of Cyprus and the town, which lasted from 709 - 670 BC, the City Kingdom becomes autonomous again. It becomes very powerful too, and its commercial and battle navy is very important in the Eastern Mediterranean. Its power lasts until the Persian conquest of the 546 BC. The Persians allowed the self-rule of the Kingdom, which was in return obliged to have battle ships armed and ready for the Persians. The Kingdom was allowed to cut silver coinage but not gold. The ships of the town fought on the side of the Persians against Egypt and Greece, but the Satrap blamed the Cypriot crews, being mostly Greek, for the defeat at the naval battle of Salamis (490 BC), executed the king of Kition and established a new Phoenician dynasty, which lasted until 312 BC. This new dynasty with the support of the Persians puts under its control the nearby Kingdom of Idalion and the whole rural surounding area. Judging from the temples and statues found in the city, it’s favorite gods were Hercules – Melkart, who also appear in the city coinage, Aphrodite - Astarte, Zeus and Artemis – Diana.
Classical Period 480 – 310BC
In the 5th and 4th centuries BC we know all the names of the Cypriot – Phoenician dynasty of Kings. They undertook a lot of public works and buildings in the city, including the port of this period, which was found in the early 1990’s in an excellent condition by a French archaeological mission. The Athenian alliance attempted repeatedly to free Cyprus from Persian rule. The Athenian General Kimon died in Larnaca-Kition on 449 BC and he is until now a hero of the town. His statue now decorates the Palm Tree Promenade of Larnaca. Alexander the Great succeeded defeating the Persians in all fronts at around 329 BC and Kition lived its last period as an autonomous City Kingdom. The famous sward of Alexander was a present by the king of Kition in their first encounter in Asia Minor in 332 BC. This sward is now at the Vergina Tombs Museum near Salonica – Greece and bears the emblems of the 3 crowns of the city’s royal dynasty, namely Kition, Idalion and Tamassos Kingdom, which was acquired by Kition in the mid 4th century.
Hellenistic Period 310 – 30BC
In the rivalry of Alexander’s generals over the rule of Cyprus, Ptolemy defeated Antigonus in 312 BC. The victor punished the city because of its alliance with his rival Antigonus. Ptolemy demolished the cyclopean walls of the town, which were also protecting the port and executed its last King. Kition lived and prospered in the Hellenistic times under the rule of the Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt. This is the time that Zeno of Kition and his Stoic Philosophy established in Athens became the favorite of Greeks and Romans and the major way of life in the Hellenistic and Roman world. The last Ptolemaic Queen of Cyprus was Cleopatra the Beautiful. She lost Egypt first and then Cyprus (30 BC) after her alliance with the Roman General Anthony and their defeat by the Roman naval power. Zeno’s copper statue in the town was confiscated by the Romans and was shipped to Rome with all the other treasures of the Ptolemaic State in Cyprus. The Roman statesman Kato, send for the purpose in Cyprus says in his writings that he kept the statue for himself because he was a Stoic. A marble statue of Zeno of Kition is now decorating the city as he is considered the greatest Cypriot scholar of all times.
Roman Times 30 – 330AD
Lazarus, the resurrected friend of Christ, lived the rest of his life in Roman Kition as its first Bishop (1st century AD). It is the time that the town has a large Jewish population as the Romans gave to Herod the Great the rights to exploit the Cyprus mines for the repayment of their debts to the Jewish State. Jewish presence in the town and in the whole of Cyprus was terminated after a Roman Imperial Decree of the 116 AD, which was preceded by a Jewish revolution on the island violently suppressed by the Romans. The Phoenicians adopted the Greek language and culture at about the same period, not only in Cyprus but also in Phoenicia and eventually disappear. Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, passed from the area in 326 AD. She discovered the Holy Cross in Jerusalem and she was carrying to Constantinople. One piece of the Holy Cross she donated to the church of “Holy Cross” she build on “Stavrovouni” the mountain overlooking Larnaca. This marked the final Christianization of the town.
Byzantine Period 330 – 1190AD
The Arab - Islamic attempt to occupy Cyprus, interrupted Byzantine peace in Kition - Larnaca. The first Arab – Islamic attempt against Cyprus started at Kition in the year 649 AD. The Hala Sultan Teke near the salt lake was founded by the Arabs to honor Um Haram, the holy helper and aunt of Mohamed, who escorted her husband and died because of a mule accident. The burial of this holy person made Hala Sultan Teke an important religious place for all Moslems. The Arab attempts against Cyprus unsuccessfully lasted for about 3 centuries. These raids destroyed all early Christian monuments in Cyprus except for the famous mosaic of the 6th century AD at the Church of Angeloktisti in nearby Kiti village. In the 10th century the Byzantines cleared the situation again and the Church of Saint Lazarus in Larnaca, build in 890 AD by Emperor Leo the Wise is today the most important Byzantine monument surviving on the whole island. King Richard the lionheard of England occupied Cyprus in 1190 during the 3rd crusade. After his victory over Alexios Comnenous the last Byzantine Cyprus ruler, his fleet anchored outside the city’s castle, which was founded by the Byzantines. At Kition he met Guy Luzignian, a French noble man from South France and powerful crusader leader and transferred their armies to Ashkelon, now in Israel.
The Frankish Kingdom 1190 – 1486AD
As King Richard could not rule Cyprus he first sold it to the Knights of the Templar and then to his friend Guy Lusignian, who established a Frankish Kingdom on the island, which lasted until 1486. This is the period that Kition is also called by the French “L’ Arnica” and eventually Larnaca. This change of the name is due to the fact that “Larnacas” (the tombs) was at that time a known quarter of the town, confused by the Franks with “L’arnica” (in French), which is the name of the plant all area was covered until recently. In the Frankish period Larnaca is also called Salinas (salt lakes), as it was the major port of the export of salt, which was massively produced here. The Luzignian Kingdom of Cyprus had as its capital Nicosia and as its major port Famagusta. However, in the 1373 the Luzignians lost Famagusta to the Genovese. They recaptured Famagusta in 1464. So, for 90 years Larnaca serves the Kingdom as its major port and the King is obliged to upgrade the castle for its protection. In 1425 Larnaca experienced a devastation inflicted by the invasion of the Mameluks of Egypt, who in the battle at nearby Choirokitia captureed King Janos, whom they send to Egypt through the Larnaca port.
Venetian Period 1489 – 1571AD
In 1489, Katrina Cornaro, the last Luzignian Queen of Cyprus abdicated in favor of Venice, after the sudden death of her husband, as she was of Venetian noble blood. The Venetians ruled Cyprus until 1571 when the Ottoman fleet landed a strong army in Larnaca. The Venetians maximized the exploitation of the Larnaca salt, which they traded with great profit in the known world. They undertook protection works for the Larnaca salt lake and established an early warning network of watchtowers around the Larnaca bay for the protection of the population against pirates and against the long expected Ottoman final attack. When this attack happened in 1570 they did not resist in Larnaca, but only in Nicosia and Famagusta.
The Ottoman Rule 1571 – 1878AD
The Ottomans landed in Larnaca and due to its vicinity with Nicosia became the most important port of Cyprus during Ottoman rule. The castle was reconstructed, as it is today in 1625 to serve as the protector of the Larnaca port. All foreign Consuls were based in Larnaca and not in the capital Nicosia. The town was the most rich and modern town of Cyprus all during the Ottoman years. During the Greek revolution of 1821, Larnaca was the center of the Cypriot rebellion against Ottoman rule with the result that its Bishop to be the first to be hanged by the Turks, followed by many rich and influential merchants based in Larnaca. In 1748 Bekir Pashia, an Ottoman governor of Larnaca and then of the whole of Cyprus, built in Larnaca an aqueduct, which is one of the few public work of common use ever undertaken by the Ottoman Administration in Cyprus.
The English Rule 1878 – 1960AD
Larnaca peacefully received the British navy and army in 1878, when the Sultan submitted the island to the Queen for her services in the Turko – Russian war. The British colonial style buildings of the palm tree promenade and the pier of the Larnaca Marina were constructed a year after the British occupation to serve the import trade and the administration of the whole of Cyprus, as the town was still the most important city of the Island. In the early years of British rule Larnaca became the place that the first newspapers of Cyprus are published and the main place that modernization was making its way on the island. The construction by the English of a new port in Famagusta and a railway connecting Famagusta with Nicosia in the 1930’s, were the main reasons of the decline of Larnaca, which in 1960 became the 4th city of Cyprus in terms of population and activity.
The Republic of Cyprus 1960
Independence of the Island was earned in 1960 and the town had a mixed Greek and Turkish population. The new government constructed in Larnaca a new port and a Marina. In 1974 Turkey invated Cyprus and Larnaca received thousands of forcefully displaced persons from the northern part and it lost all its Turkish inhabitants because of the ethnic cleansing policies of Turkey. The new airport is also constructed in Larnaca, as the Nicosia one is out of use due to its location on the separating line forcefully imposed on the island. Larnaca developed touristically in the early 1980’s and its population increased to 70 thousand. As Cyprus became a member of the European Union on the 1st of May 2004, Larnaca with occupied Famagusta are now the easternmost Cities of the E U. Larnaca is also the 3rd largest town of Cyprus. It has a well-defined historical center with important museums, excellent shores for swimming and a good day and nightlife for all generations.
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