Fuller details in Baedeker’s Palestine and Syria.
75. From Beirut to Smyrna (and Constantinople).
713 M. Steamers (agents at Beirut, see p. [481]; at Smyrna, p. [531]; at Constantinople, pp. [538], 539). 1. Messageries Maritimes (N. Mediterranean Marseilles and Beirut line), from Beirut every alternate Sat. (from Constantinople on Thurs.) viâ Rhodes, Vathy, and Smyrna to Constantinople in 4 days (fare 205 or 140 fr.).—2. Russian Steam Navigation & Trading Co. (see also R. 72; Syria-Egypt circular line, coming from Alexandria) from Beirut on Thurs. night (in the reverse direction Thurs. aft.) viâ Tripoli, Alexandretta, Mersina, Chios, and Smyrna to Constantinople in 8½ days (fare 284 or 212 fr.; to Smyrna 198 or 148 fr.).—3. Khedivial Mail Steamship Co. (comp. also R. 72; from Alexandria and calling at Port Said) leaves Beirut every alternate Wed. foren. (returning Sat. aft.) for Constantinople (in 7 days) viâ Tripoli, Alexandretta, Mersina, Rhodes, Chios, Smyrna, Mytilini, the Dardanelles, and Gallipoli (fare £E 9¼ or £E 6½; see p. [431]).
Beirut, see p. [481]. The French steamers make straight out to sea in a W. direction. Astern Lebanon remains long in sight.
About half-a-day’s steaming brings us in view of the mountains of Cyprus (Turk. Kibris; pop. ca. 243,000), culminating in the bare Troodos (6408 ft.). Under the Phœnicians and Greeks Kypros, the third-largest island in the Mediterranean (3613 sq. M.), was the seat of the cult of Aphrodite and the scene of a peculiar civilization, the product of Egyptian, Phœnician, and Greek influences in succession. In the middle ages the island was governed by kings of the house of Lusignan and was for a time the seat of the Knights of St. John (1292–1308; see pp. [475], 469, 490). Since 1878 it has been under British protectorate and only nominally Turkish.
Far away to the right we see the table-shaped Capo Greco and the bays of Larnaka and Limassol. We then pass, on the S. coast of Cyprus, the prominent peninsula of Akrotiri, with Cape Gata (lighthouse) and Cape Zevgari. Beyond Port Paphos (lighthouse) we skirt the rocky W. coast of the island.
On the coast of Asia Minor (Anatolia), on a clear day, we sight the beautiful ranges of the Lycian Taurus (10,500 ft.; p. xxxiii); at night the lighthouse on the island of Kasteloryzo (ancient Megiste), with the seaport of Mandraki, is sometimes visible.
To the S.E. of Rhodes we cross one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean (12,683 ft.).
Nearing Rhodes (562 sq. M.; ca. 30,000 inhab.), the eastmost island of the Greek Archipelago, we sight its S.E. coast as far as Attáiros (4068 ft.; formerly Atabyrion) and Cape Lartos. The latter rises beyond the small bay of Lindos, which together with Ialysos and Kamiros, ancient Greek towns on the N. coast, and with Cnidus, Cos, and Halicarnassus, once formed the league of the Doric Hexapolis.
The French steamers call at Rhodes (Hôt. Karayannis, good; Brit. vice-cons.), the capital of the island, picturesquely situated at its N.E. point. Founded in 408 B. C. by the three older towns (see above) it became famous in later Greek times for its navy and for the Colossus of Rhodes, a bronze statue of Helios 112 ft. high, which was accounted one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The ruinous mediæval *Fortifications and the Strada dei Cavalieri, with the old ‘Houses’ (places of assembly) of the different nations, recall the mediæval glory of Rhodes under the sway of the Knights of St. John (1308–1522) after their expulsion from Cyprus (p. [489]).