The Legacy of Joseph Barnabas in Cyprus

Buyuk Khan

Two men from the National Endowment for the Humanities are here in Nicosia on a business trip for the NEH. I found out during the time they were interviewing me that they would like to visit the northern part of Nicosia. So Lynne and I took them on a walking tour through the checkpoint and along the winding, narrow streets. I think that my favorite site is the Buyuk Khan.

Buyuk Khan, looking south.

Built about 1576, it is one of the earliest Ottoman structures in the city. The building was a sort of hotel, with 68 rooms and 10 shops. The downstairs rooms were used for stables, shops and storage rooms. Upstairs rooms had fireplaces and were used as bedrooms.

Merged photo of the Buyuk Khan

I like the fact that the Buyuk Khan is not like the Selimiye Mosque, which involved turning St. Sophia Cathedral into a mosque. The Khan represents Ottoman architecture, not piracy. It is a very cool building. I noticed that, as the sun was going down, the clouds were getting some nice color, so I did two HDR photos from the second floor. I also did a series of photos at the main entrance and stitched them together with Photoshop.