The owner of this two-storey 19th century mansion was Derviş Paşa, the publisher of "Zaman" – the first Turkish newspaper in Cyprus. The mansion is in the historically charming Arap Ahmet district of the city and has two entrances: on the main entrance, the year 1219 of the Muslim Calendar (1807) is visible, whilst the year 1869 is visible on the ornamented ceiling of the main room which is a later addition to the building. The mansion comprises an ‘L’ shape with a large inner courtyard, and the rooms on the ground floor open to terraced pavilions ringing the inner courtyard. A wooden staircase supported by the water reservoir in the courtyard leads to the upper floor where all the doors open onto a beautiful covered porch. Following the restoration work of1978-88, the mansion was opened as a ‘museum-house’ or ethnographic-museum and includes a main-room, a bride-room, a dining-room, and a section where many old Cypriot artefacts are exhibited.
