Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus A Late Bronze Age Trade Metropolis

The ancient city of Hala Sultan Tekke, which flourished in the Late Bronze Age, that is, from approximately 1650 to 1150 BCE, is situated on the southeastern coast of Cyprus west-southwest of the Larnaca Salt Lake near Larnaca Airport (fig. 1). Today's salt lake, which is isolated from the open sea, was a protected bay of the Mediterranean in the Late Bronze Age and thus provided convenient anchorage-the basis for trade and the wealth of the city. The city is named after the nearby famous mosque, which has its roots in the seventh century CE. The mosque was built in the area where, according to a local tradition, Umm Haram, a relative or nurse of the prophet Mohammed, died.