History of Esentepe North Cyprus
There are two villages in the island which has this same name. One of them which is the small one is located in Limassol, the KIVIDES village and the other one which is the big one is located in KYRENIA. The one located in Kyrenia raises a great amount of wild apricots and by this reason the Cypriots called this village AYOS AMVROSIOS and pronounced it as ay (groşi) and this has continued till today. This town has been built on a field which has a lovely view. The huge graveyards which were mentioned as “Makaria” before Christianity are located next to the town. Before Christianity, the “makaria” people built their houses where they buried their families and today the ESENTEPE village has been established in this way. |
Esentepe Region
|
In the Makaria period it is known that the first settlers of this place were the Greeks from the Arkadi region who returned from the war of Troy. In the west of the village, immigrants from the TESALIN region established a neighborhood which was first called “IPATI” but after was changed as “APATI”. In the Ptolemy era this neighborhood did not have its own kingdom and was governed by the Salamis kingship. The “Makaria” name came until the Byzantium period and was eliminated when the Arabian war started in 806-807. With the defeat of the Arabian pirates, today’s villages AYOS AMVROSIOS (ESENTEPE), KALLOGRIA (BAHÇELİ), HARÇA (KARAAĞAÇ) were established on the ruins which were plundered by the Arabians.
WHY WAS THE ESENTEPE VILLAGE ESTABLISHED HERE?
Before the Esentepe (Ayos amvrosios) people lived in north west of today’s village, situated towards the Karaağaç village, 200 meters ahead of the north Cyprus houses towards Kyrenia, the people were living in the plateau which is on the right hand side. The houses which are located here are underground. These houses are called grave houses (makari). In that period the people who lived there moved to the plateau for various reasons, which now has becomes the Esentepe village. The reason these people moved from this place and formed the Esentepe Village was read in a Greek newspaper and by this article it has spread by rumor till today. “The people who lived in this area built their houses underground in order to hide from the Arabian pirates so they could not be seen from the ocean. One day as the people were celebrating a wedding, the Arabian pirates came along but instead of plundering the place as they had done as usual they said that they had just come to have fun, so they joined the celebration. Even though the people in that area were not very pleased by the situation they could not say a word. Later on, with the affect of alcohol the pirates said that they wanted their leader to go the bridal chamber. The people agreed to this as they feared the pirates but some clever people made the pirates believe that as a part of their culture, the bridal chamber must happen towards sunlight in the morning, so the pirates agreed to wait and they drank until the time came for the bridal chamber. In the continuing hours opium poppy was put into the drinks of the pirates and people managed to make the pirates fall asleep. As the pirates fell asleep the people urged out that area and moved to the plateau which is now the Esentepe village. The reason why they have chosen this place was because it was a wide plateau and the people believed that it would have been easier to defend themselves. But the pirates did not attack the people as they thought that the people would have asked for help by the other villages near while they were asleep. After waiting for the attack, the people have settled to the plateau and have formed today’s Esentepe. When one looks from the shore of Bahçeli and Karaağaç it is quite obvious that this place is hard to see.
|
