The streets of the modern city, the largest in the east, have concreted over the ancient city of Kition and now host a population of around 47,000. Before the Turkish invasion on 1974 it was home to a significant Turkish Cypriot population, but they were forced to flee as thenic violence took hold. It is now home to large Lebanese population who fled their country's troubles in the 1980s.One of its better features is it compact layout, with most of the important and interesting sites within walking distance of the centre. The central tourist district is outlined by four major boulevards to form a nice rectangle with what remains of the Turkish District acting as a buffer zone for the seafront hotels.

Beaches
Beaches are not Larnaka's strong point. There are some artificially constructed municipal beaches but they tend to be small and crowded. The beach fronting Leoforos Athinon, though backed by the busy road is shallow and gently sloping but serious beach lovers should look elsewhere such as Agia Napa up the coast. The best natural beach is Makenezy Beach, about 3km to the south backed by cafes, shops and small hotels. In high summer it is inundated with thousands of bathers.

There's a fair amount of competition between this and the municipal museum, which Peridies is winning by a mile. It began life 1839 when wealthy founder Dimitrios Peridies saw Cypriot treasures being plundered by foreign amateur archaeologists, notably the local US consul. Housed in six rooms of the former family colonial-style mansion, the collection has treasures from all over Cyprus and covers most of the island's history, well arranged in chronological order. Most notable dispays are of Roman glassware, Cypriot folk art and some ancient terracotta figurines.

Plenty of pottery and a reconstructed Neolithic tomb make up the bulk of the collection but it's a poor cousin to its private neighbour, the Pierides. Roman glassware and terracotta figures fill out the displays housed in five rooms. One of the larger rooms is devoted to limestone and marble statues, busts and some earthenware statuettes.

The Byzantine Museum is in the courtyard of the church of Agios Lazaros and houses what priceless treasures didn't disappear from Larnaka Fort when it wasn't under Turkish administration before 1974. The current collection is pretty extensive with many church artefacts, icons and such, many of which have been donated by Russian churches. It's worth a visit to the church anyway which supposedly has the tomb of Lazarus - he who was raised from the dead by Jesus, subsequently expelled by the Jews and ordained in Larnaka. Lazarus' remains were originally entombed here but, after their discovery in 890, spirited away and ended up in Marseilles. The church stands out in the southern half of the town with its prominent bell-tower.

Interesting examples of the flora and fauna of Cyprus are displayed in eight rooms. Visitors are advised to avoid school hours as the place is hugely popular with school parties and, though well behaved they can be a problem if you want to see much. It's not easy to find though in the municipal gardens off Leoforos Grigoriou Afxentiou to the west of the town.

The visitor is hard put to find anything of the original town of Kition, so much has been dug up and concreted over, but what there is is a small and rather non-descript archaeological site known as Area II in the north west. Raised walkways take you over some remains of walls but there is little by way of explanation and a visit can be frustrating unless you have swotted up on the place beforehand.

Imposing and prominent on the shore Larnaka Fort and Medieval Museum once divided the Greek and Turkish halves of the town. There is little to see in the castle itself which has undergone many changes since it was forst built in 1652. It is square with very thick walls and some battlements. In one of the upper rooms is a small museum of medieval relics. The open courtyard if often used for concerts and cultural events.

Accommodation
There's the wide range of hotels, apartments etc you would expect to fins in any large town. A few hotels are high end but most are middle range family apartments. There are plenty of budget apartments too, with a hostel near St Lazaros Church and beach camping about 8km east

Travel
Larnaka International airport is about 7km from the city and takes most flights in and out of Cyprus. There are regular bus services (No 22 and No 24) from the airport to the town centre from 6.20am to 7pm and taxis also lie in wait and cost about C£5.
Intercity buses operate from Leoforos Athinon in the town centre. There are four or five buses daily to Nicosia and Limasol and double that to Ayia Napa. Another service runs to Ayia Napa every 30mins from the Sun Hall Hotel on the tourist strip. There are also daily buses to the villages of Lefkara, Kiti, Perivolia and Faros from Agiou Lazarou Square, near the church.
Several town centre firms run service taxis to main resorts like Nicosia and Limassol for around C£3 and there are regular taxis available almost everywhere for local travel though you can hire them for inter-city transport. It costs about C£12 to Nicosia and C£16 to Limassol.
Car and bike hire are plentiful.

Entertainment
With most of the noisy youngsters 30 minutes up the coast in Agia Napa, Larnaka has a much more sedate air, with people watching in bars and cafes the main occupation. Tourists usually head for the Leoforos Athinon where a cluster of bars greet them. There are at least 10 clubs dotted around the town, for those seeking a livelier time with The Corridor considered the best, though the music is mostly Greek pop. Others in the frame include Club Prime, Memphis and Venue.

Festivals
Annually in June is the Kataklysmos Festival, a feast to celebrate Noah's flood. Most resorts on Cyprus celebrate it but it goes down particularly well in Larnaka where, apart from revellers throwing water over each other, there is a street bazaar in Leoforos Athinon and lots of windsurfing and kayak racing.

Limited public transport makes visiting resorts around Lanarka difficult unless you have your own transport. There are buses to villages, but often they are once a day so it requires an overnight stop. Tourist development has spread south to the cape at Kiti but the beaches there are mostly pebble and sharp sand.

Kiti village is about 7km to the south Larnaka. Visitors often head for the 11th century cruciform church of Panagia Angeloktisti (literally 'built by angels'). Inside is a 6th century mosaic of the Madonna and child from an earlier church that was built on the site and which was only 'found' in 1952.
Heading south out of the village brings you to Perivolia where hotels have begun to mushroom offering a quieter alternative to the main beach strip in Larnaka. About 500 meters from the shore is an impressive Venetian tower but you need a ladder to get into it. The coastline here is generally low and flat, with accumulations of gravel and pebble and few tiny, poor sandy beaches. Erosion is a major problem. The designation of the land for tourist development has led to new building but little has yet been done about the poor beaches.

The pretty mountain villages of Ano and Kato Lefkara are about 25km west off the main A5 highway to Limassol (Lemesos). Both are renowned for the exquisite lacework produced there, for which they are justifiably famous. Leonardo Da Vinci is reputed to have taken Lefara lace home to Italy. The villages are pretty enough even without the lace with cobbled lanes and wooden balconies, though visitors wandering the cobbled lanes will be hard put to avoid offers to 'buy some lace'. Buyers should note that the lace on display outside in the sun and dust in never the best and that the best is never the cheapest. There is a small embroidery museum and a scattering of restaurants.

Just south of Lefkara on the A5 road to Limassol (Lemosos) is a major archaeological site at Choirokoitia or Khirokitia. The World heritage Site dates from about 7,000BC and is probably one of the earliest human settlements on Cyprus and maybe the only example in the world of a Neolithic settlement. Built on a hillside site there were once 60 houses inside a circular wall. It is know that they practised agriculture and animal husbandry, and had the remarkable custom of burying their dead under the floors of their houses. Reconstruction at the foot of the hill make for an interesting visit. Steps and walkways overlook the original settlement and informative signs give lucid descriptions of key features. A visit to the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia (Lefkosia) will help place the site in a wider context.

The big drawback at Stavrovouni Monastery is a ban on women entering the monastery proper. Female visitors are allowed in the bookshop when it's open and in the church outside. Reputed to be the oldest monastery in Cyprus it is reached by a steep winding road off the main A1 from Larnaka to Limassol (Lemesos). Although the mountain it sits on is not particularly high, about 600 metres, you still get a magnificent view from the top as it's the only mountain in the area. The monastery dates from 327, allegedly founded by Constantine the Great's mother Helena (making the ban on women rather ironic). She is reputed to have built a cross there with one of the original nails from the cross of Jesus. It's a working monastery and cameras. like women, are not welcome.

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