History at every turn: the ancient landmarks near The Garden of Eden

Northern Cyprus carries the weight of history in a way that few Mediterranean destinations can match. The island sits at the intersection of Phoenician, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Crusader, Venetian, and Ottoman civilisations — and each has left physical traces that remain accessible, largely uncommercialized, and genuinely affecting.

Saint Hilarion Castle, which rises above the Kyrenia Mountains and can be seen from The Garden of Eden on clear days, is perhaps the most dramatic of these traces. Built by the Byzantines and later expanded by the Lusignan crusaders, it served as the inspiration for the castle in Walt Disney's Snow White. The views from its upper towers take in the Kyrenia coastline, the Mesaoria plain, and on clear days, the mountains of southern Turkey.

Bellapais Abbey, a few kilometres inland from Kyrenia, offers a different kind of encounter with the past. The Gothic monastery, built by Augustinian monks in the 13th century, remains largely intact — its vaulted refectory and cloister unchanged by the centuries. Lawrence Durrell lived in the village and wrote about it in Bitter Lemons; residents still refer to the ancient mulberry tree in the abbey courtyard that he described.

For those living at The Garden of Eden, this history is not a tourist attraction but a backdrop to daily life. The ancient harbour at Kyrenia, with its Crusader castle and Ottoman mosque, is fifteen minutes away. The ruins at Salamis, one of the ancient world's great cities, are less than an hour's drive east. To live here is to be adjacent to time in a way that modern developments elsewhere rarely offer.