Kleides Islands

35°42′24″N 34°36′12″E / 35.7066064476°N 34.6034155096°E / 35.7066064476; 34.6034155096

Kleides or Klides or Klidhes or Kleidhes (Ancient Greek: Κλεῖδες and Κληῖδες), meaning keys in Greek,[1][2] is a group of small rocky uninhabited islands at the north of Cyprus.[3] Some ancient writers called them the "edge of Cyprus" (ἄκρα τῆς Κύπρου).[4] Herodotus in his work Histories wrote that during the Ionian revolt the whole island of Cyprus, except Amathus, also revolted against the Persians. Persians in response send army and navy to deal with the Ionian and Cypriot forces on the island and the Phoenician fleet sailed around the keys of Cyprus (Κληῖδες τῆς Κύπρου).[5][6] Strabo writes that the Kleides were two isles lying off Cyprus opposite the eastern parts of the island, which are seven hundred stadia distant from the Pyramos river.[7] Pliny the Elder, writes that they were four islands.[8] In reality the islets are six, but the three can considered more like rocks in the sea than islets. The islands are also mentioned by the Ptolemy in his work Geography,[9] and Hesychius of Alexandria in his lexicon.[4] A poem in Greek Anthology is also mentioning the islands.[1]

Some writers, such as Agathemenos and Hesychios named Kleides also the cape itself.[3]

Modern writers are also mentioned the Kleides islands including the:

"The Kleides Islands. — The extremity of the "Oxtail" promontory of the Carpass is formed by a small group of rocks dignified by the name of the "Keys of Cyprus". I was rowed out to the islands, coasting round the cliffs, and looking down through two hundred feet of clear sea on to every shell or weed on the bottom. But I had to be content with the marvellous scenes of the voyage for the islands afforded me nothing more than a superb view of the Cilician and Syrian coasts divided by a hazy gap which marked the bay of Iskanderun. Three of the six islands are mere reefs washed from end to end by the swell which seems to heave always round Cape St. Andreas; of the remainder one is very small, not more than a few yards in diameter, but just raised enough out of the water to support a scanty vegetation; another, somewhat larger, is divided from the mainland by a channel only a few feet wide, and is a mere mass of shingle cemented together and covered with stunted undergrowth. The last and largest lies nearly a mile out, and is covered with 'schinia' shrubs and grass and inhabited by countless sea birds."

[15]

During the British occupation of Cyprus, a lighthouse was built on one of the islets.

  1. ^ a b Greek Anthology, 7.738
  2. ^ Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898), Cyprus
  3. ^ a b Stillwell, Richard; MacDonald, William L.; McAllister, Marian Holland, eds. (1976). "Olympos". The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press.
  4. ^ a b Hesychii Alexandrini, Lexicon, Volume 2, p.490
  5. ^ Herodotus, The Histories, 5.108.2
  6. ^ W. W. How, J. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, 5.108.2
  7. ^ Strabo, Geography, 14.6.2
  8. ^ Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 5.35.1
  9. ^ Ptolemaeus, Geography, 5.14.7
  10. ^ Chronique de l'Île de Chypre. Par Florio Bustron. Publiée par M. René de Mas Latrie. 1884
  11. ^ Description de toute l'isle de Cypre,
  12. ^ Cyprus : its ancient cities, tombs, and temples : a narrative of researches and excavations during ten years' residence as American consul in that island, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, 1877
  13. ^ Hogarth, D. G., Devia Cypria, 1889, p.82
  14. ^ Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen Sprachen, Band 9, 1860, p.292
  15. ^ A description of the historic monuments of Cyprus. Studies in the archaeology and architecture of the island, George Jeffery, 1918, p. 255