An Overview and a Target

anniversaryStamp

The King of hobbies i.e. Stamps Collecting or Philatelism is only as old as the postal stamp itself. It goes back to the 1840s when the first stamp was affixed on a letter leaving London and thus paying for the cost of transfer. 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 an effort to discover more. More stamps or more of history, myth and information ; it really doesn't matter.

stBarnabasDiscovery

Philokypros = Philos + Kypros
(the i and y are pronounced like ee in "see"). 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 the name of a King of Soloi, one of the twelve ancient kingdoms of Cyprus.

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 from the past to nowadays.

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 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 four centuries after their first invasion (1570-1571: the seize of Nicosia and Famagusta).
*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.

I
n 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.
The kingdom of Soloi* (pronounced: sli, i=ee) - one of the twelve ancient kingdoms of Cyprus, was on the northwest coast of the island 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.
*Soloi in Greek writing Σλοι. The οι is pronounced like double e in the word see.
A second interpretation given by Ploutarchos, considers that King Philokypros established the city of Soloi which succeeded the older city of Aepeia that had been established by Demophon. He mentions that the Athenian legislator Solon visited the city of Aepeia where Philokypros was the King and encouraged him to relocate the city from the inaccessible place it was to the neighboring valley. Thus the city was relocated and was named Soloi, in honor of the Legislator. However, the excavations indicated that in the area of Vouni, which was considered as the position of Aepeia, nothing earlier than classical period was found while in the area of Soloi some tombs go back in time to the Geometric period. Unfortunately, the question still exists, since the excavations were interrupted by the Turkish invasion of the island and the subsequent seize of that area by the invaders in 1974. In its history the Kingdom of Soloi kept an Aegean orientation as the myth and the archeological 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, for those coming from the island of Rhodes and the Aegean sea.

An Overview and a Target

anniversaryStamp

The King of hobbies i.e. Stamps Collecting or Philatelism is only as old as the postal stamp itself. It goes back to the 1840s when the first stamp was affixed on a letter leaving London and thus paying for the cost of transfer. 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 an effort to discover more. More stamps or more of history, myth and information ; it really doesn't matter.

stBarnabasDiscovery

Contact Philokypros

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