Larnaca Aqueduct

English, as on the record

Tristram Ellis was a professional artist who came to Cyprus in 1878 and stayed for a few months with the aim of portraying the new British acquisition for the British public. He published a book titled Twelve Etchings of the Principal Views and Places of Interest in Cyprus (1879). While on the island, he executed more than eighty watercolours of Cyprus which he then exhibited at the Belgian Gallery in London. The Aqueduct was built by Abu Bekr, a Turkish Pasha of the island, in 1747-1750 in order to bring water to the town of Larnaca from the river Arpera, and paid by his own funds. It cost him over 50,000 piastres (6.200 pounds). The aqueduct was constructed by stones from the ruins of ancient Kition and was carried over three intervening depressions on arcades of 50, 12 and 31 arches. The aqueduct however fell into neglect until the middle of the nineteenth century when it was eventually restored. Part of the construction survives today and is known as Kamares. The watercolour shows the arches of the aqueduct rather uneven and clumsy. Two local figures stand under the thin shade of a tree to give the scale but the presentation of the whole scene is rather unfortunate.