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On your flight to Cyprus, take time to look out of the window just before you land at Larnaca airport. Below you is either the shimmering winter waters of the Larnaca Salt Lake, or the dry dusty lake bed dried out by summer sunshine. Most tour company coaches whisk you straight past this lake on your holiday in Cyprus, which is a shame, as you’ll be missing a hidden treasure, the Hala Sultan Tekke.
In AD649, an aunt of the prophet Muhammad fell from her mule on the shores of the lake, and died from a broken neck. She was buried in a tomb that today is contained within the pretty Hala Sultan Tekke mosque, one of the most holy of Islamic religious sites, after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.
Surrounded by waving palm trees and with its minarets and towers, from a distance the Hala Sultan Tekke seems like a vision from the pages of “1001 Arabian Nights.” It’s a very peaceful place, with channels watering the gardens (when there is water available) and the sunlight filtering through the palm leaves. In winter, when the lake is usually full of salty water, migrating flamingos stop over to feed on the brine shrimp that give the birds their characteristic pink colour.
The yellow stone mosque you see today dates from the early 19th century, and does not include a dervish convent, as the name ‘tekke’ suggests. Instead this group of buildings is a ‘marabout’, or saint’s tomb. The name itself is a mixture of Arabic and Turkish; ‘Hala Sultan’ meaning ‘the King’s paternal aunt’ and ‘Umm Haram’ meaning ‘Sacred Mother’. Leave your shoes at the door, and you can enter the mosque, decorated with medallions. Here, you will also find the tomb of the Turkish wife of King Hussein of the Hejez.
Larnaca Salt Lake was formed, as the legend goes, when Bishop Lazarus stopped a woman carrying grapes and asked her for a bunch. She rudely refused, so the Bishop turned her vineyard into a salty lagoon, which now lies three metres below sea level. In fact, settlers had been here much longer, as a Bronze Age village was discovered just a few hundred metres west of the mosque. Salt was collected from the shores of the lake as a commercial venture until 1986.
The Hala Sultan Teke is open daily, from 7.30am to sunset in the summer, and 9am to sunset in the winter. Donations are welcome to preserve this important shrine, and pay for the nightly police guard against vandals - sad but true.
photo by BR0WSER at flickr.com
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