This is interesting. I last found Cuckoo Pint at another abandoned village. I wonder if there was a reason for that? Were they a popular flower amongst TC homeowners?

There's a lovely old olive tree here too, which is always a nice find.

And that is Old Axylou. If you have an I Spy book of Cyprus Abandoned Villages (and if you haven't see our kindle link at the foot of the page*) it is worth a visit if you want the full set. But other than that, I wouldn't really bother.

But all is not lost. We are out in the countryside, and it is a sunny day, so lets do a bit more exploring.

* joke.

Driving through the countryside we came across this gypsum field. It looked familiar, and when I looked at the Eledio blog I published a couple of years ago, you can see it in the first picture.

The state of Old Axylou does raise an interesting point. The village, in the abandonment stakes, is only twenty years older than the likes of Foinikas, Evretou, Trimithousa, and all the others you can find conveniently documented in our abandoned villages section. (And incidently, we are working on an ebook that covers all of them, which is not a joke. We could add an I Spy section if you want.)

This begs the question, will they, in twenty years time, have decayed to the extent of Old Axylou? It will be a shame if they have done, but it does indicate that you shouldn't wait too long to explore these places. They won't be here forever.

From a distance you could think this was an amphitheatre. In fact, it is just an old gypsum quarry.

I wonder when gypsum was last mined here?