Famagusta: clearing the Ravelin and citadel

At Famagusta the Department of Antiquities cleared the great underground gallery of the Ravelin and the rock-cut ditch around the Land Gate outwork, work that A. H. S. Megaw presents as evidence for the form of the defences during the 1571 siege and for changes made afterwards¹. Theophilus Mogabgab directed it for the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus^1,2.

In 1950 investigations began in the courtyard of the Famagusta citadel, and Mogabgab completed the clearance of the great underground gallery in the Ravelin. Megaw reports that the gallery had been ruined during the siege of 1571 and afterwards filled in². In 1953 Mogabgab resumed excavation of the Turkish fillings in the outworks of the Land Gate and almost entirely cleared the rock-cut ditch between the gate and the Ravelin; the report says this clarified the defences at the time of the 1571 siege and the changes made after it¹. In 1955 Mogabgab excavated more of the cunette encircling the Venetian outwork that protects the Land Gate³.