Ampelikou is a predominantly Turkish community in the occupied part of the Lefkosia district. It lies 19 kilometres south-west of Morfou, at an elevation of 170 metres, in the eastern part of Tillyria. Near it, at the locality Aletri of neighbouring Galini, lies one of the oldest known metalworking sites in Cyprus, and a little further north the ruins of the ancient city of Soloi. In the 1960 census it had 548 inhabitants, of whom 63 were Greeks and 485 Turks.

Name

The village is recorded in the Ottoman property survey of 1832/33; on Kitchener’s British map of Cyprus it is written “Ambelikou”. The official gazetteer of Cyprus writes “Ampelikou”.¹

Archaeological sites

In 1942 the Cypriot archaeologist Porphyrios Dikaios, on behalf of the Department of Antiquities, investigated on the land of Ampelikou the localities Theotokos and Agios Georgios, where he dug a trial trench. The same year he partly excavated the pre-Greek settlement at the locality Aletri, which bears the name of Ampelikou in the literature but lies on the land of neighbouring Galini, where it is described.²

The Register of Ancient Monuments of the Department of Antiquities records at Ampelikou, as an Ancient Monument, the site and remains of the ancient city of Soloi, and the Gazetteer marks the site of Soloi and the place-name Teichion at the northern end of the land of the community.³ The ruins of the city lie on the land of neighbouring Karavostasi, where they are presented.

Antiquity

The finds of neighbouring Aletri show that copper was already being mined and worked in the area in the pre-Greek period. In the ancient Greek period the land of Ampelikou belonged to the kingdom of Soloi, the neighbouring city to the north.⁴ The Greek geographer Strabo, who wrote in the years of the Emperor Augustus, describes Soloi as a city with a harbour, which according to tradition was founded by the Athenians Phaleros and Akamas.⁵

Turkish rule

In the property survey made by the Ottoman administration in 1832/33, which recorded only those who held property, Ampelikou belonged to the district of Lefka and is described as a mixed village, with 32 households holding property. Its land was mainly barren fields, with a few wheat fields, mulberry gardens, threshing floors and running water. 271 trees are recorded, most of them olive trees, and also mulberry, almond, walnut and carob trees, as well as two olive presses and a third in ruins. The property holders had more than 230 sheep and goats, oxen, cows, horses and beehives.⁶

Churches and monasteries

The British architect George Jeffery, who recorded the historic monuments of Cyprus in the early 20th century, found in 1918 several ruined rural country chapels around the village, among them those of Agios Georgios, Agios Sergios and the Archangel Michael.⁷ The 2009 list of occupied churches of the Church of Cyprus records four churches: the ruined chapel of Agios Georgios and the churches of Agios Sergios, the Archangel Michael and Agios Kournoutas. Agios Georgios stood at the northern entrance of the village, and to its east was the Greek Orthodox cemetery.⁸

Economy and society

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, before 1974 the inhabitants grew wheat and carob trees, a few vineyards, which in 1971 covered about 160 skales, and a little citrus fruit, mainly lemons and oranges. They also kept sheep and goats: in 1973 the village had 459 sheep and 1,711 goats. They also found work at the neighbouring mine of the Cyprus Mines Corporation and at the mining and other installations of Xeros.⁹

Population

According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the village had 255 inhabitants in 1881, 308 in 1891, 372 in 1901, 355 in 1911 and 439 in 1921, of whom 113 were Christians and 326 Muslims.¹⁰ In 1931 Ampelikou had 534 inhabitants, 178 Christians and 356 Muslims, and in 1946 641, of whom 170 were Orthodox and 471 Muslims (the 1931 and 1946 censuses recorded only religion). In 1960 it had 548 inhabitants, 63 Greeks and 485 Turks. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, the Greek inhabitants were forced to leave the village because of the events of the Turkish insurrection of 1963–64.¹¹ In 1973 the census recorded 147 Greeks in the community, in the settlement of Neo Ampelikou, and about 600 Turks (estimate).

National struggles

In the Enosis plebiscite of 1950, 78 inhabitants of Ampelikou signed. The Register of EOKA Fighters lists one Greek inhabitant of the village who took part in or supported the Struggle.

The Turkish invasion of 1974

During the Turkish invasion of 1974 Ampelikou was captured by the Turkish army. According to the Great Cyprian Encyclopaedia, part of its land now lies in the free areas, another part in the occupied areas and a small part between them, in the buffer zone.¹² The Turkish occupation forces and the illegal occupation authority prevent the return of the inhabitants to the occupied part.

At Neo Ampelikou a civilian was lost on 16 August 1974, who is still missing; the official list does not link him to any community of origin.

The 2009 list records all four churches of the community as lying within a Turkish military camp.