MUNICIPAL MUSEUM OF MARINE LIFE
The Tornaritis-Pierides Museum of Marine life was founded in june 1992 in Agia Napa and is located in lower level of the “Thalassa” Municipal museum.
It is the first museum of it is kind in Cyprus with exhibits of past and present marine life , scientifically classified . it is main purpose is to show to the Cypriot and foreign visitor the marine fauna of Cyprus and the Mediterranean , helping the stidy and research of this part of Natural History , but also to stress the importance and necessity of preserving the marine environment.
Some of the exhibits of the Marine Life Museum are
-a reconstruction of the sea bed of the age of the dinosaurs with fossils of shells, sponges, corals, ammomites and rudists of lake Cretaceous period (130 to 65 million years)
-Recent shells of the Cypriot and Greek seas.
-various marine organisms such as sea-urchins, star fishes, crabs, lobsters, sponges corals, marine plants and others.
-various sea and lake birds in their natural habitat.
-sea turtles in their natural habitat at the time of laying eggs.
-recent fish.
-various photographs and films of the sea life.
It must be pointed out that all the exhibits were collected post humously and no single specimen was removed alive from it is natural environment.
One of Agia Napa’s most interesting discoveries found west of Agia Napa village in the locality of Makronissos, was the discovery of an ancient burial site. Between November 1989 and early January 1990, the Municipality of Agia Napa sponsored intensive excavations of the rock-cut tombs, which have been the target of illegal digging since 1872. Nineteen tombs have been excavated to date together with a small sanctuary to the east of the burial grounds and part of an ancient quarry adjacent to the cemetery. Recant studies indicate that some of the tombs suffered as a result of the continuous use of the quarry.
The tombs generally consist of a stepped road, which leads down to a rectangular entrance. The entrances were originally closed with one large or two smaller calcarenite slabs. Most of the chambers are almost identical. They are all provided with a rectangular trench in the middle, slightly lower than the floor of the road and three benches at the sides of the chamber. Some of the tombs
have additionally one locusus carved on the longitudinal axis of the tomb opposite the entrance , while another is provided with four benches at the sides and one opposite the entrance, thus providing room for five internments. Although all tombs were looted and disturbed, some logical scientific conclusions may be drawn.
The dead were placed in clay sarcophagus, which were originally covered with three flat tiles.
The tombs were used during the Hellenistic and Roman period.
The pyres found on the surface by the roads show clear evidence of practising Greek burial cu stoms.
The sanctuary is a simple rectangular enclosure constructed with large irregular blocks. The few offerings found during the 1974 archaeological survey as well as those found during the latest excavations date the sanctuary to the Cyprus-Classical and Hellenistic period.
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