The village of Inia on the Akamas Peninsula is home to the only museum devoted to basketry in Cyprus. Housed in a renovated schoolhouse next to the village’s main church, the museum displays a wide variety of objects woven for agricultural and domestic use. Over the centuries, villagers shaped materials available in the area, such as rushes, cane, straw, wheat, palm leaves, and branches of the turpentine and wild olive trees, into useful and attractive implements. One basket is arched to fit over the back of a donkey; its two sides feature containers for carrying grapes or carobs during harvest. Another, oblong basket has a round opening with a lid in the centre and grates at both ends—perfect for carrying chickens to market. Others are used to form and drain cheeses. Basket makers follow a few common steps. First, they gather, trim, and split canes using a knife, hammer, and wooden wedge. Next, they soak the canes in water to soften them. Then, they form the base and frame of a basket and weave the sides. In creating the coiled baskets known as tsestos, women artisans create bold geometric patterns using coloured pieces of cloth and dyed reeds; these baskets are used for exhibiting wedding and christening gifts and decorating walls. In addition to baskets, you can see a tool for making rope, a loom for weaving matts, and a chair made from mulberry wood with a rush seat. The museum is just a fifteen-minute drive from Anassa.
