Abandoned Villages - Faleia

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Dominic
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Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by Dominic »

Faleia lies close to the abandoned village of Agios Fotios. It is abandoned because of the troubles, not because of any threat of landslides. According to online records, it has a population of two, and is in a desolate state. Judge for yourself just how desolate...

Read the article and chat about it below...
 
faleia_masthead.jpg
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Re: Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by cyprusmax47 »

Nice blog again Dominic, thank you showing us this half abandoned village which I did not know, even when exploring many many times that area on the way to Vretsia and the Paphos forest. As many houses have water tanks on their roof and also electricity is available they might be used more, either in the hunting season or in the August holidays as one can see even air cons installed. So the Gov. supplies the village with the most important thing: water with a pipe coming from Statos. I wonder if houses are illegal occupied or if there is a special agreement that one can rent
Turkish Cypriot property there, like it is the case in other places in the northwest coast ( Giallia ). Concerning the "marble" rocks, I believe that it is another formation of Gypsum as the village is in a west-east line from Kathikas-Stroumbi-Polemi-Letymbou-Lemona-Amargeti where one can find Gypsum in different variations. But definitely Andreas would know better (Lofos-5) than me.

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Re: Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by Lofos-5 »

Might go and have a look myself to see the quarry - the description of it (vein) does not lend itself for marble. Needs to be some hydrothermal deposit, so a variant of gypsum (anhydrite for example, although not hard enough to fit Dominic's description if pure) could be possible...

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Re: Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by Kili01 »

From what I have learned through my interest in archaeology, there has never been any marble found in Cyprus. What marble has been found on say Roman and Venetian sites is believed to have been imported. Cyprus used to export a large amount of copper which gave the island its wealth and thus encouraged trade.

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Re: Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by Dominic »

I originally assumed it was quartz, then alabaster. But the description of alabaster stated that it wasnt very hard. I guess hardness is a relative term, but it certainly felt hard when I whacked a large chunk with a sledgehammer.
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Re: Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by cyprusmax47 »

Dominic wrote: Wed Jul 11, 2018 4:46 pm I originally assumed it was quartz, then alabaster. But the description of alabaster stated that it wasnt very hard. I guess hardness is a relative term, but it certainly felt hard when I whacked a large chunk with a sledgehammer.
Alabaster is a variety of gypsum... so it is possible... let's wait and see until Andreas had visited the site...

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Re: Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by Lofos-5 »

cyprusmax47 wrote: Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:53 pm Alabaster is a variety of gypsum... so it is possible... let's wait and see until Andreas had visited the site...
Went to Eledio today instead - very nice village and the viewpoint is worth the trip on it's own as mentioned in that blog. The 2 sinkholes seem natural to me but I cannot explain their location at a topographical high - this does not make much sense to me and the little sign from the Cyprus Geological Survey also mentions prevailing locations to be in river beds which is absolutely not the case in Eledio. The surrounding rock formation is full of gypsum - the crystals where shinning through the dry grass - and gypsum being easily soluble lends itself for karsts and sinkholes.

Downloaded Google maps to be used offline and drove from Tala in about 40 min to Eledio using my iPhone as a GPS - never done that before as the local maps or my old Garmin are good enough. The result however was a very interesting route via Tsada, Kallepeia, Letymbou, then the E702 towards Lemona until the Ezousa valley where Google sent us following a dirt track along the river valley and over some hills to the old (destroyed part) of the village and finally to the viewpoint. At some point started to doubt the Google map navigation as the offroad track was narrow, no other vehicles to be seen, and very remote from any other settlements for a good while.

Return was via Episkopi and the new Minthis Hill development (I had no idea!), Tsada, Koili, Kamares and Tala. Good afternoon trip - a change from lazying around the pool or the beach :) - will do Faleia soon as my family thought I was taking them to an abandoned village which Eledio certainly wasn't (we even had an ice cream there).

A.

PS - the cave where the Thai boys were trapped and rescued from is also a karst with sinkholes being searched for as vertical shafts to potentially access the deeper parts.
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Re: Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by Dominic »

You have to be careful along the banks of Ezousa Valley between Episkopi and Letymbou. Some of the innocent looking tracks lead to perilous descents it is incredibly difficult to reverse back out of if you change your mind. Perhaps it is the gypsum, but the track surface is a very fine white ash that is impossible to grip to, even in a 4x4. I once had to reverse down such a track because our Pajero couldn't get a grip to get us back to safety. My wife, who was outside directing, actually lent in to the car to get her phone, saying that if I went over the edge she would need the phone to call for help.

My knuckles were very white, and it was not particularly pleasant.

Yet on the map, it looks innocent enough...

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/34% ... 32.5384451
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Re: Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by cyprusmax47 »

Lofos-5 wrote: Thu Jul 12, 2018 5:35 pm
cyprusmax47 wrote: Thu Jul 12, 2018 12:53 pm Alabaster is a variety of gypsum... so it is possible... let's wait and see until Andreas had visited the site...
Went to Eledio today instead - very nice village and the viewpoint is worth the trip on it's own as mentioned in that blog. The 2 sinkholes seem natural to me but I cannot explain their location at a topographical high - this does not make much sense to me and the little sign from the Cyprus Geological Survey also mentions prevailing locations to be in river beds which is absolutely not the case in Eledio. The surrounding rock formation is full of gypsum - the crystals where shinning through the dry grass - and gypsum being easily soluble lends itself for karsts and sinkholes.

Downloaded Google maps to be used offline and drove from Tala in about 40 min to Eledio using my iPhone as a GPS - never done that before as the local maps or my old Garmin are good enough. The result however was a very interesting route via Tsada, Kallepeia, Letymbou, then the E702 towards Lemona until the Ezousa valley where Google sent us following a dirt track along the river valley and over some hills to the old (destroyed part) of the village and finally to the viewpoint. At some point started to doubt the Google map navigation as the offroad track was narrow, no other vehicles to be seen, and very remote from any other settlements for a good while.

Return was via Episkopi and the new Minthis Hill development (I had no idea!), Tsada, Koili, Kamares and Tala. Good afternoon trip - a change from lazying around the pool or the beach :) - will do Faleia soon as my family thought I was taking them to an abandoned village which Eledio certainly wasn't (we even had an ice cream there).

A.

PS - the cave where the Thai boys were trapped and rescued from is also a karst with sinkholes being searched for as vertical shafts to potentially access the deeper parts.

At least with your funny route from the Ezousa river you found the old abandoned village of Eledhiou. After Dominic's blog I tried to find it, but with no success....
Would you mark it (Eledhiou) on a map for me?
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Re: Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by Dominic »

Good point. All I could find was an old ruined church.
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Re: Abandoned Villages - Faleia

Post by Lofos-5 »

cyprusmax47 wrote: Fri Jul 13, 2018 10:23 am At least with your funny route from the Ezousa river you found the old abandoned village of Eledhiou. After Dominic's blog I tried to find it, but with no success....
Would you mark it (Eledhiou) on a map for me?
Old Eledio.png
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This is the path we took - it starts at the top of the E702 taking a sharp right turn along the river valley onto the dirt track (yellow writing - sorry resolution, could not upload a reasonable one it seems).

It then follows the valley until about Pitargou (on the other side) and climbs over a hill and down to another little stream (that feeds into the Ezousa further down). From there it climbs very steep up towards the old Eledio. It now transpires to me that the old Eledio was the target of the Google map direction (no wonder we could not see much and my wife was convinved that we got lost :lol: )!

From there it is less than 2 km to the new Eledio on the E606 - marked with a red circle on my screenshot (the supermarket is bit more NE than what I marked).

A.
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