Life of a Lil Notti Monkey: Kouriun.....Curium

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Kouriun.....Curium

Before I begin this post,
I need to acknowledge someone important whom I've left out in the previous post.
Thousand apologies Sir.

for the very first time in my blog,
I've received the very first complain.
*well there's a first in everything*

Mr. Dinos said:
"A small complain. You have been talking about the great chefs but you have not mention about the humble food supplier whom ensured the tenderness of the meat, freshness and flavoursome of the mussels and the gardening of the home crop.

Poor Dinos......sniff sniff sniff"

Okie Mr. Dinos...
thank you very much for selecting the best of the best ingredients for the chefs to work it.

and he emailed me this pic yesterday showing his fresh produce of the day,
from his garden. :)))

if u are asking,
Dinos = Veeny's bubbly hubby
Veeny = JS's smart sister

and so today's topic will be on ruins and more archaeology sites

this is The Stadium
civilisation then already have sports!!! and olympics of coz!!

constructed during the 2 A.D
do u know how long ago was that?!?!?!?!??!

they hold sports like running, long jump, high jump, wrestling, and javelin.

JS was trying to run the whole stadium....
do u know how f-king huge is it?

it is this HUGE!!!!
and it's only one side...I have yet show u the other side!!!

I also took the opportunity to introduce a new sport!!
POSING!!!!!!!!!

and monkey-grooving + flapping the hands like Big Bird!!!

the next place we went to was totally out of the world,
Kouriun = greek
Curium = latin
hence pronounced as Curium
but since I wanna be a Greek I shall use Kouriun in this post.
*ahem*

Kourin is an Ancient City
it was even recorded by ancient author, Ptolemy

Just an idea chart here for reference:

Early Bronze Age	3000/2900-1900/1800 BC
Μiddle Bronze Age	1900-1600 BC
Late Bronze Age	1600-1050 BC

*HISTORICAL PERIODS*
Cypro-Geometric period	1100-750 BC
Cypro-Archaic period	750-500 BC
Cypro- Classical period	500-310 BC
Hellenistic period	310-50 BC
Roman period	50 BC-324 AD
Late Roman , Early Christian or Early Byzantin period	324–7^th AD

so at least it's a few thousand years old!!!

they already have drainage and piping system back then!!!
AMAZING!!!!!!!

with numerous bath house and SPA (hot and cold)
SPA??????????
they have SPA back then???

above pic shows the remains of the bath house...
so how does it work with all those funny stilts?

hot water will run on the floor and heat up these stilts,
stilts then support another level of mosaic floor and heat the mosaic floor
and hence the entire room will be heated up....just like sauna i suppose.

there's a cool systematic drainage system to run the fresh hot water
and another drainage system to drain all the used water.

this is how it looked like at the top
beautiful mosaic floors.

some were eaten by time or destroyed during the earthquake.

very very nice...with greek words there..
lemme read it out:
"galatoboureko galatoboureko galatoboureko"
heeeeeeeeeeeee i dunno any greek, and galatoboureko is one of my fav greek dessert :D

and the bath house overlooked the beautiful sea!!!!!

sigh....
why on earth did I come back?
I wanna be a cypriot.
good food, good view, good food, friendly people, amazing culture and history, good food and more yummy food.

and we walked over to the theatre which also overlooked the SEA!!!! what a beautiful backdrop

this amazing theatre can seat 2000 ppl and is still in used today for
plays and theatre performances and musicals.

this is how u sit systematically
I was wondering if there's numbered seating?

wow....so big..
and it has built-in acoustic so the 2ooo spectators can hear u,
they already have that technology back then??? O_O
but of coz it's made from holes, stones etc
just like Flinstone.

If u stood at where JS was standing and speak at a normal decibel,
the tourist at the top can hear u loud and clear.

I was so tempted to clear my throat and try to sing like a monkey...
erm, better not...for I do not want to destroy the beautiful place
just in case an earthquake due to my voice. :D

they have a systematic stairway and exit for the spectators...
so ppl don't have to push around..

Look at the wall!!!
eaten by time and erosion

at the back stage was the changing room!!!!

our lovely guide Mr. Dinos was explaining on the usage of each room.
Room to keep the props,
room for the main performers,
make up room,
room for gladiators.

and then we walked up to the Marketplace = Agora
this place is HUGE!!!

well it's a city so wat do u expect?
every year the archaeologist excavate something new.
so this place is growing and growing as they dig.