Kelefos Bridge

[Dominic]

Kelefos Bridge is probably the most well-known of all the Venetian Bridges in Cyprus, for good reasons. It even features on the UK TV holiday adverts for Cyprus, showing a couple cycling over it on an afternoon ride. In reality, you won't find any cyclists here, but you will find a bridge full of charm, and surrounding countryside to match...

Read the article, take the virtual tour, and chat about it below...
 

kelefos_bridge_masthead.jpg (88.03 KiB) Viewed 2793 times

[Kili01]

Well done Dominic, lovely photos of a very photogenic bridge in a beautiful setting,
All these bridges were built by the Venetians during their period of occupation in Cyprus.
At that time the most valuable resource of the island was copper which was being mined extensively in the Troodos Mtns, It was smelted into copper ingots, but had to be transported down to the coast for export. Because of the difficult terrain and the weight and bulk of the copper, camel trains were used to transport it through the mountains, there being no roads. The route crossed a number of rivers which became impassable during the winters. To enable the movement of copper not to be interrupted during the winters these bridges were built where ever the camel train crossed one. The route over the bridge was cobbled to give a grip to all who crossd them. They were wide enough to accommodate the camel and its handler walking. The bridges are humped in order to create sufficient height to allow the camels to walk under them, by the rivers in summer.
In the past the trails created for transport purposes were probably also used by other travellers so stayed open, but these days although some people visit some of the bridges they aren’t particularly accessible, so probably only walkers use some parts of them.
Dee

Dee

[Dominic]

Thanks for that. I have updated the blog with your info.