A Pre-historic Building at Salamis

Extract

The ancient building which I propose to describe, one of the most interesting of its kind in Cyprus and the East, has been casually mentioned by A. P. di Cesnola (Salaminia, p. 2, 1882) as a wall; ‘perhaps a part of the ancient wall bounding the interior area of the harbour :’ an architectural, topographical, and geological impossibility. By R. H. Lang (Cyprus 1875, p. 25) as ‘a Cyclopean ruin.’ By Unger and Kotschky, who add to an insufficient account an indifferent drawing (Die Insel Cypern, Wien, 1865, p. 533), but, with greater judgment, describe it as a Cyclopean well temple. L. Ross (Denkmäler u. Forschungen, Arch. Zeitung, April 1851, p. 328) calls it a Phoenician tomb, cp. L. P. di Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 171, German edit. R. Pocock (1745, II. 217) speaks of it as ‘a chapel built of three stones, the four sides consisting only of two stones, and it is covered with a third, which is angular at the top. If I mistake not, I may say, this Saint (Catherine) was buried in this chapel, and there seems to have been a tomb in it.’ I begin by explaining my drawings, made with great care on the spot; every stone was measured, and reduced to scale. R denotes rock, M masonry. See Pl. XXXIII.