GAZIMAGOSA( Magosa) in Cyprus

HISTORY OR LEGEND What little is known about the early remains of Salamis relies mostly on legend. It is believed that Teucer founded a settlement here at the end of the Trojan War. He is thought to have fallen out with his father Telamon, who banished him from his homeland.

After landing on the northern shores on the beach of the Achaens, Teucer and his followers crossed the Karpas Peninsula and founded a township at the mouth of the Pedios River. Teucer named the town Salamis after the island of his birth. There was probably little development until around 1200BC when the inhabitants of the nearby city of Enkomi discovered that their harbour was silting up and it was essential to find new Access for shipping if the copper exports were not to suffer. Salamis was the nearest and most logical place to develop.

Before the eight century BC Salamis was the most important commercial centre on the island and by the sixth century BC was being referred to in ancient texts with regard to the payment of taxes to the Assyrian Overlords. Attempted revolt against the Persian rulers failed and it was not until Alexander the Great demolished the might of the Persian Empire in 334BC that stability returned to the island. he Empire of Alexander spread far, and after his death the governing powers of Cyprus were the Hellenistic dynasty ruling Egypt, the Ptolemys. However there were still kings in each of the island's city kingdoms and the last king of Salamis, Nicocreon, fought against the armies of

Ptolemy only to be vanquished and forced to commit suicide along with his entire family around 295BC.

The once prosperous suburb of Maras or Varosha, now lies behind the Atilla line (the border which divides the country) and is easily visible from the Palm Beach Hotel. It is an expanse of hotels and flats, built in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Much of it lines the sandy shore for which this area is so famous. It was extremely popular with tourists, and anyone visiting Cyprus in the early 1970s would probably have stayed in this area. Due to the political stalemate it remains in the hands of the Turkish Cypriot authorities. It is strictly forbidden to photograph any part of this area.