Volunteering in Cyprus

  This week we have started restorations on an old Islamic graveyard in Pano Lefkara that has become derelict. The people living in the Greek side of Cyprus, including Pano Lefkara, are Greek Orthodox, and the people living in the Turkish side are Muslim. The conflict in 1974 started through a Greek military coup which wanted to unite the island with mainland Greece, this resulted in an invasion by Turkey and left the country divided. Today there is still a split through the country, separating the people who live in each side. So, in 1974 the Muslim people that were living in Pano Lefkara fled to the north, leaving the graves of their loved ones uncared for. Soon after this people vandalised the graveyard, smashing headstones and defacing pictures of the people buried there. With permission from the local authorities and the families of the dead we have been clearing the site of weeds and plants that have completely overgrown the graveyard. Next we will be attempting to piece to...

 Week two started on the 10th of March 2025. On Monday we started with a day trip to see the famous archaeological site at Kourion, it is known as the ancient city-kingdom of Kourion. The first inhabitants of the site were in the Late Neolithic period, continuing into the Chalcolithic period from 3500-4000 B.C and then the Mycenaean colonisation which began in the 14th century B.C. There are no architectural remains that you can see at the site anymore as the area was inhabited after this. You are able to walk around the site today and see the remains of architecture from as long ago as the Hellenistic period from 325-50 B.C. The city-kingdom was then inhabited by the Romans who carried out extensive building programmes during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd century A.D. This is the period from which you can see most of the remains today, including huge mosaics and pillars. You can then see the final stage of occupation through the introduction of the new religion, Christianity, this was towa...

 Welcome to my newest blog where I keep you (and myself) up to date with my latest travel experience. It is the 3rd of March 2025 and I have just arrived in the village of Pano Lefkara, Cyprus. My reason for being here is to volunteer on an archaeology project in the mountainous countryside of Cyprus. The project is run by Martin Clark, he is the director of GRAMPUS Heritage, an organisation that does placements for young people who want to travel, learn and practice new skills in a real world sense. I completed 3 weeks in Romania during the summer of 2025, Martin lives in Cyprus and has got together a group of young archaeologists to help him with his current project. This will last 5 weeks and I'll be leaving on the 4th of April.  I arrived in Paphos at around 2pm local time and was picked up by Eden, a member of the team helping Martin to supervise the project. We drove along the coast and stopped at Aphrodite's rock to have a look. It is a sea stack of three large rocks on...