What are these mystery tags?

[Dominic]

I am taking a break from my normal blogs to pose a question. On my travels throughout Cyprus, while I have been photographing interesting locations for blogs, I have often stumbled across some mysterious tags. They consist of a date, and an initial or two. I have photographed them as I explored, but have never included the photos in a blog because it doesn't really fit in with the blog's theme. However, I have now amassed sufficient tag pictures for them to warrant a blog in their own right. And my question to you is simple; why are they there?

Read the article and chat about it below...

[trevnhil]

Is the first picture, 'in reverse' ??

[Dominic]

Is the first picture, 'in reverse' ??

No.

[Dominic]

Surely they're just the Cypriot equivalent of 'Boz woz 'ere'! So much graffiti here these days it's not nice and it seems nowhere is sacred!!

That could explain some of them, but it wouldn't explain the directional arrows, for instance, nor the need to write your initials repeatedly on different dates. Plus,some of the locations are really obscure, yet far easier to access locations remain untagged.

[cyprusmax47]

I don't want to ruin your Blog as it should go actually into the Puzzle/Quizzes section....
So far only a hint: it all has to do with water...
Anyhow, very nice pics again Dominic.

Max

[trevnhil]

Is the first picture, 'in reverse' ??

No.

Ah I can see now that it is just writing from all angles

[LouiseCastricum]

Dominic, please take into account that the initials are written in Greek, so f.i. where it says Π it means the Greek P and not the N. Also where it says Γ it is not an R but the Greek letter Gamma.

[Dominic]

I don't want to ruin your Blog as it should go actually into the Puzzle/Quizzes section....
So far only a hint: it all has to do with water...
Anyhow, very nice pics again Dominic.

Max

I originally thought that, but it doesn't explain the hospital and the trail in the Akamas. Perhaps there are two reasons?

[cyprusmax47]

I don't want to ruin your Blog as it should go actually into the Puzzle/Quizzes section....
So far only a hint: it all has to do with water...
Anyhow, very nice pics again Dominic.

Max

I originally thought that, but it doesn't explain the hospital and the trail in the Akamas. Perhaps there are two reasons?

It DOES explain the hospital AND the trail in the Akamas..
Fancy a swimm? was one head line of your Blog from the Hospital. And Aphrodite Spring is not very well known but in Akamas near Blue Lagoon.
Max

[Maverick]

Geocache Tags?

[LouiseCastricum]

Water quality checks I guess.

[Dominic]

Why would people be performing water checks in abandoned villages who's water pumps no longer function?

[Dominic]

Geocache Tags?

No, geocaching relies on an actual log book. I had thought it could be a similar sort of game, but it wouldn't explain why somebody would sign the same spot multiple times.

[Dominic]

Hmm looks like simple GRAFFITI to me.

That wouldn't explain the well. It was in the middle of an area of abandoned farmland, and surely beyond the radar of any graffiti tagger.

[Dominic]

That's different though. Grafitti on the underside of a bridge which you drive under can be seen. You may not know how they got there, but you can see what they scrawled.

Nobody would see this,unless they were exceptionally nosey and possibly a little bored from picking litter.

[PaphosAL]

Why would people be performing water checks in abandoned villages who's water pumps no longer function?

Abandoned in the 1974 turkisk invasion and until now, sadly. But ARE they totally abandoned, or do most of these 'ghost TC' villages still have the odd GC resident or two? Just to keep a watchful eye on wotz going on?

In which case, the Water Company would still want to check the water quality in that locality, ready for an eventual swap of houses to their original TC / GC owners, surely? I think the cunning plan of keeping a GC family in each 'abandoned' TC village makes eminent sense...

Visualize them as watch dogs. As soon as someone turns up in a truck to grab some building take aways from an 'abandonded' TC property, the local GC is there like a shot, asking what the fook he's playing at! Makes sense now, it's all about keeping things ready for a possible hand back, is it not?

Cheers- AL

[Dominic]

Why would people be performing water checks in abandoned villages who's water pumps no longer function?

Abandoned in the 1974 turkisk invasion and until now, sadly. But ARE they totally abandoned, or do most of these 'ghost TC' villages still have the odd GC resident or two? Just to keep a watchful eye on wotz going on?

In which case, the Water Company would still want to check the water quality in that locality, ready for an eventual swap of houses to their original TC / GC owners, surely? I think the cunning plan of keeping a GC family in each 'abandoned' TC village makes eminent sense...

Visualize them as watch dogs. As soon as someone turns up in a truck to grab some building take aways from an 'abandonded' TC property, the local GC is there like a shot, asking what the fook he's playing at! Makes sense now, it's all about keeping things ready for a possible hand back, is it not?

Cheers- AL

As the pumps no longer function, what would they be testing?

[darrow]

They are dates and ΠΜ and ΜΜ are morning and afternoon.(loosely speaking) Could they be water levels at different times of the day?

[grb]

I heard that they are to record spraying for mosquitoes/ larvae, particularly in areas where water is stagnant.
grb

[cyprusmax47]

I heard that they are to record spraying for mosquitoes/ larvae, particularly in areas where water is stagnant.
grb

Finally, you are right grb. It is the inspectors name and date....

Max