Greater Nicosia is probably the only area in Cyprus that can boast of being inhabited continuously since the beginning of the late Chalcolithic period. What makes Nicosia unique among Cypriot Bronze Age settlements is precisely the fact that it continued to thrive, while others ceased to exist.
During the first millenium BC, when city-kingdoms prevailed, Nicosia enjoyed neither the power nor the prosperity of the other kingdoms of Cyprus, most of which lay on the coast.
In around 672 BC the kingdom of Ledra or Ledrai, then ruled by King Onassogoras, is recorded ninth in a list of kingdoms which paid tribute to the Assyrian king Esarhaddon.
It was not until the dissolution of the city-kingdoms by the Ptolemies at the beginning of the third century BC that Nicosia managed to exploit its natural resources and geographical location in the centre of the island.
In the Roman period and up to the fourth century AD the Kingdom of Ledra was nothing more than a small village.
Ancient Ledra, which in the Ptolemaic period was also named Lefkothea, became known as Lefkousia or Ledri in the first years of Christianity in Cyprus.
Sources: A Guide to the History of Nicosia (Leventis Municipal Museum)
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