Karmi( Karaman)
Karmi is one of the most picturesque villages of North Cyprus.It inhabited mostly and German expatriates.
Necropolis of Karmi
The necropolis of the village is thought to date from the Middle Bronze Age(c 1900-1625BC).Here a number of rich chamber tombs have been excavated.On the wall of an access passage of a tomb the chude relief of a human figure has survived.This is the earliest relief of a human figure discovered on the island so far.In one of the tombs a Minoan’Kamares’ cup and blue faience beads from Egypt which suggest very trading relations with Crete and Egypt were discovered.It is called’the tomb of the seafarer’ because it was believed’that the man probably walked dawn to the sea at Lapithos and took sevice with one of the vessels trading between the Syrian posts and the Aegean and that these objects are momentoes of his travels’.
Lapta ( Lapethos)
Afterthe successive Arab raids in the seventh century AD the inhabitants of Lambousa gradually moved inland and –carrying some of the stones of their house as well-founded Lapithos on the mountain terraces overlooking the sea.The settlement flourished during the Lusignan rule and its population reached to some ten thousand people.Excavations in the area have revealed a Chalcolithic settlement which is thought to have utilized the local copper deposits,and Iron Age chamber tombs.
The present day settlement is one of the most fertile villages pn the island,owing this to its abundance of water gushing from Başpınar spprings from some 280 m above.The rushing sound of water,which has been the most precipus commodity on the dry islandi,can be heard all over the area.The village is famous for its extensive lemon and orange groves.