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THE FLORA AND FAUNA OF MASSARI

The residents of the village engaged in livestock-farming, agriculture and cultivation of citrus fruits.  Even today the village’s plain is planted with orange, grapefruit, lemon trees, tangerine trees as well as olives.  In addition, during the summer months they produced watermelons, melons and pumpkins. They also planted vegetables in their own courtyards, such as celery, lettuce, parsley, tomatoes and cucumbers for domestic use.   In their courtyards they also had various fruit trees, such as apples and pears, grapevines for their fruit as well as for their shade.  They took advantage of the naturally growing vegetation of the area, enriching their diets with wild fruit from fig trees, pomegranates, prickly pears, campari and mosfylies.

Some villagers had herds of cows, sheep and goats that fed in the nearby land and especially in the site called kafkalla. They also raised chickens, pigeons, rabbits and Guinn pigs in their courtyard.  The villagers believed that a large area of their land was not suitable for cultivation because of the underlying limestone. 

Due to the land morphology, consisting of big cliffs the area offered (and continues to do so) a good and safe environment for a great variety of birds.  The cliffs, the river, the dry land and the orchards attract migratory and native birds.  The game birds of the village were thrushes, blackbirds, songbirds, partridges and hares. The vulture  (gyps fulvus) and the migratory falcons (falco peregrinus) and (falco biarmicus) were the most impressive birds that inhabited the village.  Vultures were permanent inhabitants of the cliffs of the village while the falcons were migratory, passing through in the autumn. 

Still today, falcons migrate to the village, until today.  This is where the village got its new name from the Turkish habitants “Sahinler” meaning falcon. 

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