The castle of Kantara is about 70 km east of Girne so it is not a good idea to do it in a half day trip. You only need to spend one to two hours looking round the ruins (although I spent a full and fascinating day there! - Hans Doeleman) and then a few miles away there is a grand beach for a picnic at Kaplica (Dhavlos).

If you want to take in a good stretch of coastal scenery then the coastal road east is the obvious way, but the main snag is the tortuous trail, it is full of bends and twists. It can be very tiring to the eyes driving back to Girne in the late afternoon, for going westwards you have the setting sun in your eyes all the time. You may think the road is lonely, and nothing to worry about, since you have driven ten miles without seeing a car, and then suddenly you meet the country bus on an awkward bend. Watch out and don't get involved in discussions while driving.

The alternative route is to take the Famagusta road and turn off to Salamis before approaching Famagusta. This "prairie" route is shown on the map, figure 1, and although it looks much longer, owing to the straight roads you can tear along and reach Kantara castle in less than two hours. You will pass many villages while crossing the Mesarya or prairie country but on the coastal road there are only very few en-route. There are historical reasons for the absence of coastal towns, and the answer will be obvious in the next paragraph.

The castle is the most easterly of three that were built as watchtowers and defensive sites to guard the coast against repeated attacks by Arab raiders and gangs of pirates. In the late Roman period piracy became very common all over the Mediterranean and it had caused the Romans much effort to keep it in check.

The Byzantines built the castles as watchtowers to warn the local villages of impending raids. Kantara lies astride the crest of the Girne range of mountains, at a point where the range peters out and continues on into the Karpas peninsula as a line of low hills. The castle not only guards the coast but the way into the Karpas peninsula, which stretches for another 50 km to Cape Andreas.

The Venetians made Famagusta as their administrative centre about the year 1500 a.d. and for a time maintained Kantara as a garrison fort, but soon found it was too remote for regularly upkeep and it was dismantled about 1560 a.d.

This picturesque ruin is shown in an extensive photobook and is taken inside and outside. Looking Westwards one sees the chain of mountain peaks forming the main Girne range, but looking east into the Karpas the mountains have degenerated into low hills. Both north and south coasts of Cyprus are visible from the castle ramparts.