A Short Distance From These Is The Church Of
St. Barnabas, Raised Upon The Site Where It Is Believed That The Body Of
The Saint Was Discovered, Together With The Gospel Of St. Matthew.
How
the Saint and the Gospel had been preserved in the damp soil of that
neighbourhood must be left to the imagination.
Passing through the ruins of the old town with the line of the wall
distinctly visible upon the sea front, we shortly arrived at the spot
where the river Pedias should have an exit to the sea. No sign of a
river-bed existed, but a long series of swamps, composed chiefly of
bare mud, would during wet weather have made a considerable detour
necessary; they were now dry, with the exception of two or three holes
full of muddy water, which were unconnected with any perceptible
channel. A long stone causeway proved that occasionally the hardened mud
upon which we rode would become a lake, but from the numerous tracks of
animals the earth was preferred to the uneven and slippery pavement of
the artificial road. The enormous quantity of mud brought down by the
Pedias during its fitful inundations had completely obliterated all
signs of an ordinary river-bed, and the deposit had produced a surface
that was scored in numerous places by the rush of water, without in any
way suggesting that we were in the neighbourhood of the largest river in
Cyprus. The width of this muddy swamp was about two miles, and
terminated by a shallow lake upon our left.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 169 of 524
Words from 45961 to 46221
of 143016
