Thursday, September 20, 2007

Piece Together Cyprus

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There can be few mosques in the world with a setting more beautiful than that of Hala Sultan Tekkesi. The building is surrounded by dozens of date palms and cypress and olive trees, while in front sits a huge salt lake, a bright white sheet with occasional patches of water.

And behind it, in the distance, sit the multicoloured hills and mountains of central Cyprus. It is, quite simply, breathtaking. What makes it all the more remarkable is that the mosque, located in the south-east of Cyprus, is just a half-hour walk from the island's busiest airport.

First things first

Hala Sultan Tekkesi was built in 674 after Umm Haram, said to be the aunt of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), fell from her mule and died. Her tomb lies in an annexe next to the mosque, which is open to non-Muslims and is the first thing most people see when they arrive on that Mediterranean island.

While Cyprus is popular with package holidaymakers keen to spend a couple of weeks lying in the sun and partying, there is more to the island than the beaches and nightclubs it is famous for.

Continue reading here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

and what did the Turks with the Greek churches? Turn them into mosques. Nothing new under the sun with this kind of occupation.

Anonymous said...

I guess Turks changed the those Churches into mosques after 1453 taking over Constantinople from the Greeks.

There still lots of churches in Istanbul, even every small city all around Turkey, even city of Mersin has 2 churches one Catholic and Orthodox. Don't be misuse, amount of Christians living in Turkey Churches are more then enough!

Anonymous said...

You don't turn churches into mosques.
Through out the ages only muslims did that...since they are building their religion upon other religions.
The damage the muslims did world wide is well known. Until Today!!

Anonymous said...

and that PUHM is not appropriate on this blog as I understand that Hans doesn't allow propogandists.

Unknown said...

Alexandre, I don't have any problems with the latter....