Young 'Lefkosiatisses' (Nicosian girls) in national costume

'They have a taller and more stately figure , and the features , particularly of the women of Nicosia , are regular and dignified , exhibiting the elevated cast of countenance so universally admired in the works of Grecian artists . At present , this kind of beauty seems peculiar to the women of Cyprus ; the sort of expression exhibited by one set of features may be traced , with different gradations , in them all . Hence were possibly derived those celebrated models of female beauty conspicuous upon statues , vases , medals , and gems of Greece : models selected from the throng of Cyprian virgins , who , as priestesses of Venus , officiated at the Paphian shrine .'

 The Rev. Edward Daniel Clarke

Travels in various countries of Europe , Asia and Africa (1801)