Upon travelling from the village of Erimi of Limassol, towards the mountain villages of the district, the so-called “wine producing villages”, at 40 kilometres you will find the riverbed of the Ha-Potami river in front of you. Once you pass the bridge, you will find the right exit at 50 metres that takes you to the village of Kissousa.
The road towards the village is at a dead end. It covers a distance of 200 metres and that’s it. It has eight houses, a church, a park, six residents and a great history, as big as the whole island, and it is the village of Kissousa.
No one talks about the history of this village. The reason why Kissousa has been abandoned by its residents, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots is written nowhere. Kissousa has been intentionally (?) abandoned by the precaution service of the government. The village, after the deal of the government with England concerning the allowance of the only source of potable water from which its residents irrigated their homes and vineyards, began to be abandoned.
The Turkish Cypriots left first and then the Greek Cypriots left as the years went by, resulting to it having only six permanent residents. With the effort of the Mukhtar of Kissousa, Mr Marneros, a small park has been created. His tries for the cleaning and the embellishment of the only path of observation of nature that is found on the north of the community have not given any result until today.
The Department of Forests prohibited camping and food preparation in the beautiful square, where in olden days the mouth of the headwaters of Kissousa was found. This small area with the high Platanus trees and the terebinth trees, its river and its dozens of sources where water wells from remains completely unexploited. To the question “why” we can only get an answer from those responsible.
Another area of infinite beauty, where many platanus trees are found, on which wild ivies are found, is the area where the english pumping station that takes the water from the headwaters to the english bases in Akrotiri.
In the same area, on the peak of a vertical cliff, that is also the east shore of the river is the point where thousands of birds nest. Their “voices” are heard from very far away, since one tries to get a better place than the other.
In the yard of the church of the Saints Sergios and Vakchos, there is something which is unique in Cyprus. A terebinth tree of huge dimensions, whose age is estimated to be greater than eight hundred, covers the church and the biggest part of the closeby cemetery. The dimensions of the tree are such that they allow other flowers, mostly wild lilies to grow on its bypasses.
The community of Kissousa could, under other circumstances, have developed to a magnificent picnic destination with some kind of forest park. On the contrary, such beauty is “hidden” and “hushed up” by the authorities. The reasons are probably hidden in the deals for the allowance for exclusive rights upon the water of the headwaters to the English.
