Enkomi Village

This acient city is thought to have been the first capital of Cyprus and dates back over 4,000 years. Also referred to as Alasiya, it's located near to the present-day village of Tuzla, north of Famagusta. Excavations have revealed the city was initially under Egypt and later Mycenae influence. It was a large orderly city with a prosperous trade and surrounded by fortified walls. It was originally built on a rocky plateau west of Tuzla, on the river Pedieos, the longest waterway in Cyprus.

Copper ore was transported to Enkomi, where it was smelted and shipped for export as the river was navigable and had an inland harbour. The metal trade continued into the Late Bronze Age and was recorded in correspondence between the Pharaoh and the King of Alasiya. It's unclear if "Alasiya" referred to just Enkomi, the region, or to Cyprus as a whole but the exchange confirms Alasiya as a major supplier of copper to Syria and Anatolia.

Excavations have discovered several areas where metallurgy took place and the name is found on texts written in Egyptian, Hittite, Akkadian, Mycenean and Ugaritic. . Much of what you see today is the remains of reconstruction after it was devastated by the “Sea People” who invaded eastern Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus, and Egypt toward the end of the Bronze Age. around 1200 BCE. The earlier town was built ad hoc, but the new town was rebuilt on a grid system, with long east-west avenues and a north-south main street. In 1075 BCE, it was hit by an earthquake, then around 1000 BCE, the inland harbour silted up and decline set in.

As Enkomi declined, nearby Salamis began to thrive, and the last inhabitants of Enkomi migrated there. Most of today's ruins are from the rebuilt city, which never recovered its ancient grandeur. In 1896 as part of the Turner Bequest expedition to Cyprus, the first excavations on the island were conducted by the British Museum. Two bronze statues of gods were found on what was thought to be ceremonial buildings.

The “horned god” is a bronze statuette which reveals the influence of Hittite art, depicting a God, possibly Apollo, wearing a horned helmet. The “ingot god”, is wearing a horned conical hat and greaves, shield and spear, and stands on a miniature hide-shaped ingot. Other notable finds include the “Enkomi Cup” which used niello decoration making it one of the earliest uses of this technique – a black mix of sulphur, copper, silver, and lead, used as an inlay on engraved or etched metal, especially silver. Most of the discoveries are in a collection of 1,800 objects or fragments in the British Museum in London.