Kamares

The island of Cyprus is often described as a cultural crossroads, an island nestled in the far eastern corner of the Mediterranean that has been conquered and colonised over and over stretching far back into ancient times. It is less than 100km from the shores of Turkey, so close to Syria that in Larnaca people would listen to Arabic radio stations, and close enough to North Africa that the Sahara dust often pink-ens the sky in a dream-like softness. Cyprus is regularly described or situated through its relation to other places. The Cypriots are told they did not make their own history, only that history happened to them.

The streets are filled with layers of history that refuse to disappear, unyielding to time or the oppressive heat. This is an ancient land and although many civilisations have laid down their histories here, this island speaks with a unique voice through the rubble of its generations of colonialism. This series focuses primarily on the Cypriot landscape and topography, taking the ubiquitous arch of Cyprus’ vernacular architecture as an inadequate departure point.

'Archaeologists investigating a low hill on the southern edge of Nicosia in a millennium or two’s time are likely to discover the remains of a monumental structure with a bizarre mixture of architectural styles and motifs: Byzantine domes and column capitals, Gothic mouldings and windows, Venetian lions, Ottoman lattices, Cypriot vernacular arches, and British coats of arms, plus further oddities such as stone camels’ heads and gargoyles wearing bowler hats' - Michael Given

‘The history of Cyprus can scarcely be thought the history of Cypriots’ - Agnes Smith, Through Cyprus. 1887