LIMASSOL, or LIMISO, a town of Cyprus, in the south of the island. Of the ancient city, nothing but ruins now remain, though it was a celebrated place, even under the government of the dukes. King Richard, the conqueror of the last of these vassals of the empire, razed it in 1191, and it was never afterwards rebuilt. This city was originally the same as Amathus or Amathonte, so famous for its temple erected in honour of Venus and Adonis. Amathus was the residence of the first nine kings of the island, and amongst others of Onelitus, who was afterwards subdued by the arms of Artabanes, the Persian general. This city, erected into an archbishopric in the time of the Christians, has produced a number of personages celebrated for their knowledge and the sanctity of their lives. Richard, king of England, having destroyed Amathonte, Guy de Lusignan, in the twelfth century, laid the foundation of the new city which the Greeks called Neopoleos. The family of Lusignan, who continued to embellish and fortify it, built there palaces, besides Greek and Latin churches, and made it the seat of a bishop. When the island was taken by the Turks in 1570, the Ottoman army entered this city on the 2d of July, and ravaged it without mercy. It was then destroyed by fire.