Dipkarpaz

 town  Add category

• Municipality / Belediye
www.dipkarpazbelediyesi.com
• District- Governorate / Kaymakamlık
icisleri.gov.ct.tr/BAKANLIK/Kaymakaml%C4%B1klar

Dipkarpaz [Greek: Ριζοκάρπασο, Rizokarpaso [locally [rizˑoˈkar̥paso]]; is the main settlement, and is the gateway to some of the areas most interesting ruins. The town is the home to North Cyprus's largest community of Greek Cypriots, who chose to remain with their Turkish Cypriot neighbours after 1974, and their whitewashed Orthodox church rubs shoulders with the mosque overlooking the main squa.

Population (2010): 6.000

Cypriots have come to think of the beauty of the Karpaz as sacred, like the Apostolos Andreas Monastery at the tip of the peninsula. The monastery is a key religious site, and the focus for Greek Cypriot pilgrimages on the important festivals of Orthodox Easter and St Andrew's day. A fortified monastery stood on this craggy shoreline in the 12th century, from where Isaac Commenos negotiated his surrender to Richard the Lionheart. The oldest surviving building is a 15th century seaside chapel, now essentially a crypt below the main icon-decorated church. To the north of Dipkarpaz lie the spectacular seafront ruins of Ayios Philon, part of what was once Carpasia. Stones from the ancient city were used to build a 10th century church, the ruins of which still stand, and mosaics are still visible from a far earlier basilica. Just five miles away are the remnants of Aphendrika, said to have been one of the island's foremost cities, where you can see Cyprus's oldest surviving domed church.

Sources:
- whatson-northcyprus.com