In its heyday, just before the British occupation of the island in 1878, Kyrenia harbor was a quiet, often ignored, port between Cyprus and mainland Turkey. From there local Caïques, Greek owned, Turkish owned and even Turkish-Greek owned, conducted a thriving trade. Depending on the season, they exported wheat and olives, donkeys and goats and much more. Larger boats, mostly from Europe, arrived in the late fall and early winter to take in the crop of carobs, the main export item of the area. The caiques brought in wood, earthenware, legumes, cheese, butter, and even small luxury items such as silk and cotton cloth, buttons and odd pieces of furniture. Slowly, two storied buildings emerged around the harbor as the owners used the lower floor as warehouses and the second floor as their residences.
The town’s trade with the Anatolian coast and beyond was badly affected in 1885, when the then British government of the island began renovating the Kyrenia harbor which left it wide open to the northern gales. Slowly, over the next decades, scores of caiques were wrecked within Kyrenia harbor, with their owners often unable to recover from the loss.