The story of Kyrenia Castle

Inside these walls lies one of the oldest ships ever recovered: a Greek merchant vessel from the 4th century BC. A Greek Cypriot diver, Andreas Kariolou, found it in 1965, still laden with millstones and wine amphorae from Kos and Rhodes; a storm had wrecked it outside Kyrenia harbour when it was already about 80 years old. Its 14-metre hull of Aleppo pine now rests in the Shipwreck Museum here.

The castle itself probably began in the 7th century, when the Byzantines built it to guard the town against Arab threats from the sea. Richard I of England captured it in 1191, John of Ibelin enlarged it between 1208 and 1211, and in the 15th century one siege lasted nearly four years, leaving the defenders eating mice and rats. In 1540 the Venetians gave it today's shape, with thick walls and long ramps for hauling cannon.

Kyrenia surrendered to the Ottomans in 1570, and the tomb of Admiral Sadik Pasha lies in the entrance corridor.