The
King of hobbies i.e Stamps Collecting or Philatelism is only as old
as the postal stamp itself.
It
goes back to the 1840's when the first stamp was affixed on a
letter leaving London.
We are not aware of its destination and fate, however, it had
accomplished its mission far beyond all expectations...
We shall try through these pages to navigate the history of Kypros
stamps .
The Journey is not a short distance one .
While searching for the details and circumstances of each stamp , a
whole world of real history and culture will unveil leading the
eager enthusiast deeper in the try to discover more (more stamps or
more of history and stories . . . it really doesn't matter
)
Kypros , Cyprus ,
Kibris
The female
island lying in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The
much beloved land of its inhabitants and invaders alike, of writers
and poets, of Kings and Crusaders, of historians and politicians in
the past to nowadays.
Philokypros
= Philos + Kypros = Philokypros
The Greek language spoken in Cyprus by the natives during the last
3,500 years has provided this word which means
the
friend or lover (= philos ) of Cyprus (= Kypros
).
The word has
served as a name for Kings of Soli , one of the ten ancient
kingdoms of Cyprus.
The kingdom of
Soloi (pronounced: soli , i=ee),
was on the northwest coast of Cyprus with its capital on the cove
of the Morphou bay. The ruins of the ancient city are located at
the foothills of a low hill called even today "Palaia Hora"
(Ancient Capital), east of the village of Potamos tou Kampou. The
river of Kampos flows west of the hill and on the east side of the
estuary the ancient port can be traced. According to myth the
Athenian Trojan heroes Phaleros and Demofon established the city. A
second interpretation given from Ploutarchos considers that king
Philokypros established the city of Soloi, which succeeded the
older city of Aipeia that had been established by Demophon. He
mentions that the Athenian legislator Solon visited the city of
Aipeia, where Philokypros was the king and encouraged him to
relocate the city from the inaccessible place it was to the
neighboring valley. The relocation was then performed and the new
city got the name Soloi, thus honoring the Legislator. However, the
excavations indicated that in the area of Vouni, which was
considered as the position of Aipeia nothing earlier than Classical
Period was found, and moreover in the area of Soloi some tombs go
back to Geometric Times. Unfortunately, the question still exists
since the excavations were interrupted by the Invasion of 1974. In
its history, the kingdom of Soloi kept an Aegean orientation as the
myth and archaeological record proves, and as the position of the
city on the northwest shore suggests. It comprises the second
nearest port after Marion, located further west, coming from the
island of Rhodes and the Aegean via the Cilician Sea.
Being
a philatelist*
(i.e a stamp
collector) of my country, I thought it useful, firstly for myself,
to exploit my love and interest to the hobby by digging into
history as this is reflected in my country's issued stamps.
My aim
is to list
and describe the stamps used and issued in Cyprus from 1864
to-date. And indeed although compared with the past this is a
relatively short period of time, it is nevertheless, the beginning
of a new era for the island marked by the formation of the Republic
of Cyprus in 1960 and the ethnic cleansing of its northern part by
Turks who invaded it in 1974 for a second time 403 years after
their first invasion (1570-71: the seize of Lefkosia and
Famagusta).
In order to be more informative and in a try to give a more
spherical or in depth approach to the various subjects that will
arise I shall provide either a bibliography or links to related
pages.
I hope that this ambitious project will find at least a handful of
people wishing to browse these files.
*Philatelist,
derived from the greek words philos + telos = friend (or lover) +
stamp
Actually the word "telos" means the price one should pay for a
certain reason which in this case is sending the mail.