The history of the ancient Cyprus is fraught with many mysteries. For example, scientists still cannot accurately establish the location of some cities that are mentioned by ancient authors.
In the middle of the VI century A.D. The Alexandrian philosopher Stefan Byzantine compiled the work of the "ethnic" (also known in Russian as a "description of the peoples"). Stefan at that time lived in Alexandria, where he headed the famous philosophical school. He traveled little. He lived, practically without leaving Alexandria. But this did not prevent him from writing a book that transfers and characterizes the cities of the world famous then. These descriptions for the most part were taken from the works of his ancient predecessors available to Stefan. Since many of these works were subsequently lost, Stefan's compilation is of great value for modern scientists.
In the “Description of the Peoples”, the author mentions four Cyprus cities, where they revered the god Apollo as a guardian of forests. It was called the "Gilate" (from the ancient Greek word "Gili", which means "wood"). These are the cities of Kurion, Amamasos, Eriste and Temrob. Everything is clear about the first - its ruins can be examined today. But with the other three there is no clarity. It is completely unknown whether these cities existed and where exactly they were located. However, scientists have several hypotheses.
Antique Temrobon is correlated with the modern village of Temper (Tembia), located in the Salea Valley, between Eurech and Kacotropy. However, this correlation is based only on the similarity of the names. Amamasos is placed in the area of the modern village of Drima in the region of Paphos - it was there that ancient inscriptions were found, which call Apollo "defender of the forest." As for the location of the erystea, the Greek scientist of the 19th century Afanasios Sakellarios was sure: it was located on the banks of the Simvulos (or Simbula) River in the Limassol region - not far from the ruins of the temple of Apollo of Galatsky, preserved to this day. However, there is no reason for this assumption, except for proximity to the temple,.
The exact location of the mysterious cities is still a historical riddle.
This article was first published in the “Vestnik Cyprus” on October 28, 2022. Part of the information could be outdated.
