Hunting wild animals was the great sport of the early rulers, and whole retinues of nobles, barons and princes would go into the forest for anything up to a month at a time, living in tents. One account written in 1336 described how the party took with it 24 leopards and 300 hawks to aid in the sport.
By the 16th century, many species verged on extinction. The huge forests were gradually cut down for domestic fuel, but also for smelting in the copper furnaces throughout the ages. The abundance and ease of obtaining this fuel enabled Cypriots craftsmen to attain a high standard of metallurgy, and Alexander the Great is said to have had a Cypriot sword. Great expanses were also cleared for crop growing. The plain owed its fertility to the alluvial deposit brought down from the mountains in heavy winter rains, like the fertility bestowed on the banks of the Nile in flood. As the climate changed over the centuries, less and less rainfall occurred and the area around Nicosia became a semi-desert-like plain.Touring the Mesaoria Plain
A more interesting route to Gazimagusa than by the main highway is via Ercan, a former military airport. It was constructed by the British in Wold War II, and has now been transformed into a small but quite slick passenger terminal for all non-military flights that connect to the Turkish mainland.Eight kilometers west of Ercan, at Gaziköy, is the only antiquity along this route, an Ottoman aqueduct. It runs close beside the left of the road, quite well-preserved for a long stretch, beginning about 1 km before Gaziköy. One of the major legacies of the Ottomans was to transform the water distribution on the island by building several such aqueducts. The water was sent, not just to wealthy rulers houses, as had been the case under previous occupations, but also to public fountains in the cities and towns, introducing a higher standard of hygiene and cleanliness than had been possible before.
The villages you pass along this roué have interesting old rural-style houses, and lifestyles here have remained largely unchanged since the 18th and 19th centuries. The streets also have more than their fair share of mud. After rain. The whole area is very liable to flooding, with roads and fields becoming indistinguishable in sheets of water. Rain in Cyprus can often be violent, and it is not unusual, any time from mid-October to mid-March, for two or three inches to fall in a day. It is mercifully brief, though, and the day after is quite likely to be bright and sunny.
Further east, Pa?aköy is, like so many villages in the vicinity of the Attila Line, a bit like a military garrison. Though the forest of military barriers is a little daunting at first, you are in fact never stopped as a tourist vehicle. South of Pa?aköy near the village of Erdenli, you may feel tempted to visits Ayios Spiridon, the monastery marked on some old maps. It is however heavily guarded, due to its proximity to the Attila Line, and no attemps should be made to approach it. One of the oldest and largest monasteries on the island, Ayios Spiridon was also the place where icons were sent for restoration from all over the island. As a result, it has the largest collection of valuable icons in northern Cyprus. Though not on view to visitors, independent archaeological authorities have been allowed in to see them since 1975 and have confirmed they are all safe and neatly catalogued.The road on to Gazima?usa forks north through Turunçlu.
North Cyprus Hotels If you are continuing to Salamis rather than Gazima?usa, be careful not to miss the fork left near Mutluyaka to save yourself the unnecessary and unsightly detour through the industrial outskirts of Gazima?usa. The traffic along this road is, by northern Cypriot standards, very busy, with many lorries and goods vehicles heading for the commercial freeport of Gazima?usa.