But turn the clock back a few hundred years, and you have a village plucked straight out of a folk tale. Richard the Lionheart captured Cyprus in 1191 AD after defeating the Byzantines. He then sold the island to the Knights Templar.

The Knights, who had their headquarters in Nicosia in order to control the plains of Mesaoria, used Foinikas as a base for their operations in Paphos and Limassol.

During the French Lusignan period (1192-1489) the village was known as ‘Commandaria Della Finicha’.

As a side bar, I have always pronounced it "Foinikas", with the Foin rhyming with "coin". However, it appears that the correct pronounciation should be "Finikas".

Now, a quick break from the drone shots to bring you this. I include it here because while I was doing a bit of digging on the history of Foinikas, I found an old picture. This isn't it. I took this a few days ago. It shows the main castle area which is part of Foinikas Old Town, so to speak.

This is the shot I found. It dates back to the Eighties I think. No earlier than that, as there is a reservoir in the background and the dam wasn't finished until 1982. The previous shot will have been taken just to the left of the orange roof you can see.

The above photo was used with permission, and was found on Facebook. As you can see, most of the buildings are still intact at this point.

Comparing the pictures, it is striking how much more dilapidated the ruins are now. I cannot emphasise this enough. The abandoned villages are interesting places to explore, but they will not always be here. Sooner or later the remaining walls will collapse or get engulfed by nature. Foinikas may well fair better than other abandoned villages though, as the army uses it for training on ocassion, and fishermen and ramblers regularly pass through. Each footstep will help delay the encroachment of nature.

It is unusual for the reservoir to be this full. Indeed, we published a film in December where we drove from here to Nata. There was a lot less water in the reservoir then.