LAPITHOS (LAPTA) A SHINING STAR

LAPITHOS (LAPTA) A SHINING STAR

Lapta , with its location and natural beauty is one of the island's most popular locations...It has provided shelter for countless civilaitions in the past,
and is now making progress daily , in order to keep up to today's standarts , and evolve even further.The person , who has pushed ahead Lapta's progress greatly is Mayor Fuat Namsoy , who has occupied the post for 13 years and has devoted himself entirely to his duty and the happiness of his town.We talked to Mr.Namsoy about his plans for Lapta's futURE :
THE COPPER AGE , THE BYANTINE RULE AND THE KINGDOM OF LAMBUSA

Lapta is a small town , totally charming , due to its location with the mountains in the back and the beachfront at its fo
ot.The first settlement of Lapta is known to have been established in the Copper Age.Lapta has its Golden Age under Byzantine rule (395-1191) it was highly developed and was thus given the name "Lambusa" meaning luminous or shiny.Tourism in Lapta started after 1974.Nowadays , it is one of the most significant towns due to its natural structure and characteristics its hotels and governmental bureaus.If we compare Lapta to the rest of the administrative district of Kyrenia , it is the one that has preserved its naturalness the most.Tourism is one of the main fuels of the driving power ensuring the development of the Lapta area.

MUSICAL EDUCATION CENTRE AND BALLET SCHOOL

In the last months , a ballet school from the Kyrenia Centre for musical Education opened in lapta ; you were the one who influenced the choice of the location the most . How did this process come about ?

We are applying our efforts to give Lapta a central role and to bring it into focus for more activities and projects.Even if or financial situation maybe unstable , we are doing all we can . The Centre for Musical Education in Kyrenia belongs to Turgay Hilmi and Gölem Özdegirmenci.I contacted Mr. Hilmi as soon as I found out he was looking for a locality for his new ballet school.I said that I could find a remedy for his problem as his activities could be carried out in our area.After we completed the formalities we opened the school for business.Activities such as ballet and yoga take place at the school.Although the school has the existed for less than a year , the demandhas increased to such an extent that the church is too small.We reacted to this problem and rented the large cinema hall belonging to the Kooperatif and are now offering it to the Musical Education Centre for their lessons.Here , there will be many artistic activities such as theatre and ballet courses taking place.

ECOTOURISM AND EXCURSIONS

You are currently trying to enliven Lapta's ecotourism , could you describe your efforts in more detail ?
We have worked mainly with hoteliers to bring the existing resources and beauties of our region into the foreground.For example , there are numerous vilagers doing handicrafts in Lapta.We are currently negotiating with them , in order to be able to offer more possibilities and are marketing their work.Furthermore , we are trying to advertise our local food specialties.We want to emphasise Lapta's values , beauties , and options from a touristic perspective and thus be able to offer these attractions to locals and to tourists.
There are numerous historically valuable monuments and sites in the region of Lapta.Could you briefly mention some?
Antique water mills , historics churches , Ottoman mosques , memorials and orchids in Lapta are worth seeing .Furthermore, there is a tank left in the mountains from the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation.It was left there after it had been fatally shot by Cypriot Greeks.I believe it is definitly worth seeing .In order to do this there are many fixed hiking tracks in the mountains of our area.For example, there is hiking track going to the tank from here, continuing to St. Hilaron Castle . There is another one from the tank to the east leading back to Lapta.We believe the maps and hiking lanes will onjoy quite some popular ity.We are determined to continue all our efforts towards utiliing Lapta's touristic potential to the full extent.