Image Details

James Davis/Corbis

From the ruins of the St. Hilarion castle in northern Cyprus, one can see the Kyrenia mountain range (right background) and sometimes even the Taurus mountains of Anatolia, some 63 miles across the Mediterranean. The castle is named for a hermit monk who lived in a nearby cave in the fourth century A.D. A Byzantine monastery and church were built beside the cave in the tenth century, along with a tower to keep watch for marauding Arab pirates. In the 13th and 14th centuries, the castle complex was enlarged to serve as a summer palace, which was destroyed by Venetians in the 15th century.