An unexpected sight - 21 March 2007

I suppose the geography of Cyprus should have given me a clue. An island in the Mediterranean Sea to the west of Israel so that some would believe it located in the heart of Europe probably close to Rome or those nice Swiss with their cuckoo clocks. The western EU countries see it to the east of Turkey in the depths of the Middle East. Somewhere near Syria. Probably a suburb of Beirut.
It was still a surprise to come across a full scale and savage battle right on my doorstep. Two armies opposing each other and fighting over an apparently barren and stony wasteland. Long supply routes hampering both sides with a constant flow of messages back to their HQs and a stream of reinforcements sent to the frontline. The battlefield itself was littered with corpses. Soldiers engaged in single combat and all prepared for the indiscriminate use of chemical weapons. Each soldier with inhuman strength desperate to overcome their opponent as though they knew that the loser would be dragged back behind enemy lines for a fate that does not bear thinking about.
For hours the battle continued, a war of attrition limited only by the number of bodies each side could throw at the enemy. The next day neither side had prevailed and the landscape they had battled for was as bleak and barren as ever with no sign that either had ever been there.
The only sign of life were the highly coloured butterflies that warmed themselves on the grey rocks.