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CHAPTER XXVI. 
"Voyage to Cythera. — Ruins of the queen's palace. — Observations on their 
origin — Return* to Nicosia — Voyage to Idalia. — Larnaca. — Return to 
Liniasol. 
April 3d, I left Nicosia at eight in the morning, 
and took a N. E. direction to go to Cythera. At nine 
I passed by a village called Diamiglia, and arrived at 
the end of my journey at ten. 
By satisfactory observations I found the latitude of 
Nicosia to be 35° 13' 14" N. and its longitude 31° 6' 
30" E. from the observatory of Paris. 
The great plain of Nicosia extends to the neighbour- 
hood of Cythera, which is surrounded by small clay 
hills. 
How would the imagination of a poet fire at the view 
of those places, consecrated to the mother of love! I 
met Mr. Rooke, an English traveller, at Liniasol; who, 
having visited Cythera, assured me that his imagina- 
tion supplied the want of reality, and that he figured to 
himself the goddtss surrounded by her nymphs. My 
head cannot here supply me with images in unison with 
the objects which presented themselves to my senses; 
the graces, the nymphs, and the loves, could not em- 
bellish in my eyes the picture of poor Cythera, which I 
cannot compare but with the most miserable village of 
the comie Venaissin or Limagniin Auvergne. 
Cythera is a little district of an irregular form, covered 
with gardens and mulberry trees, about a league from 
north to south', and not very broad. 
