Above: Picture of Famagausta Gate

The Famagusta Gate is a historical relic piece handed down by the island’s tumultuous history. It is also a portion of the fortified medieval town wall of Nicosia. Initially, it was labeled by the Venetians as the “Porta Guiliana”. This was a tribute to Count Savorgnano - the military engineer who created the wall.

During that time, the Gate was also recognized as the “Porta di Sotto” or the Lower Gate. This was due to the fact that there was so much dissimilarity in the leveling compared to its exterior. It is also known as the “Taht-el-kaleh” to the Turks.

Famagusta is one great city that is believed to have been founded in the 11^th century BC and after the influences of the many conquering nations notably the Romans the city was finally abandoned in 648 AD, following the combined catastrophe of earthquake and raids by pirates when the population moved to Famagusta.

The town was known as Arsinoe (after Arsinoe of Egypt) in antiquity, then Ammochostos (meaning “hidden in sand”) that is how it is today referred to in Greek. The same name developed into Famagusta, used in Western European languages and the Turkish name of Ammochostos (Gazi is a Turkish prefix meaning glorified).