Early Christian and Byzantine Cyprus: three periods in one group

A group for navigation

This group is a navigation device of the site, not a new historical division. It brings together three separate rows of the chronological table of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus: the Early Christian period, from 395 to the mid-7th century; the period of the Arab raids, from the mid-7th century to 965, which the table lists as a Byzantine row; and the Byzantine period, from 965 to 1191. The Department of Antiquities page cited here could not be opened for checking on 24 October 2026; the details from it follow notes taken from that page at an earlier stage and were not re-checked. The site gives each row its own page, so as not to blur the table's own division. Source 1.

Boundaries and overlaps

The three periods follow one another without overlapping, but the first boundary is not a year: it is "the mid-7th century", and the number 650 on the site's navigation axis is an approximation for ordering only. The Met's timeline for 500-1000 CE describes Cyprus as "occupied by Arab forces during the mid-seventh century", in an entry dated ca. 647, and mentions a treaty of 688 between the emperor Justinian II and the Umayyad caliph 'Abd al-Malik "for joint occupation of the island". The boundary of 965 falls within the timeline's entry for ca. 965-969, according to which Cyprus was "firmly reincorporated into the Byzantine empire" under Nikephoros II Phokas. Sources 1, 2.

What the group contains

Through its three periods, the group contains articles on the three basilicas and the bath at Agios Georgios, Pegeia, and on the Early Christian basilica at Kourion, in the Early Christian period; on the church of Agios Lazaros at Larnaka and on Hala Sultan Tekke as a late memorial site, in the period of the Arab raids; and on the churches at Asinou and Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis in the Troodos, in the Byzantine period. The period of the raids is the weakest of the three in dated evidence, and its page sets out what is missing.