Cyprus: A guide to cyprus - Cyprus travel, cyprus tourism, cyprus history, cyprus sights

CYPRUS (KYPROS)

Cyprus is an island of legends that basks all year-round in the warm Mediterranean sun. A storied past 10,000 years long has seen civilizations come and go and the likes of everyone from Alexander the Great to Cleopatra stake their claim here.
Aphrodite was born in Cyprus and made her home here. Travellers throughout antiquity came here just to pay her tribute.

Today Cyprus is a modern country that effortlessly marries European culture with ancient enchantment. Here in Cyprus you will discover a compact world of alluring beaches and fragrant mountain peaks, vineyards studded with olive trees

and ancient ruins that stir the imagination, citrus groves and old stone villages where sweet wine flows as freely as conversations at the local café. Cyprus is a carefree place where a sense of timelessness is magnified by the kindness and hospitality of the people.

Strategically located at the gateway to the three continents of Africa, Europe and Asia, Cyprus has seen the great empires over the past 10,000 years come and go. All have made their presence known by leaving their own unique flavour on this island, whether in architecture, art or cuisine, Cyprus is very rich in history and culture, and that's why Cyprus is just so much more than a Mediterranean holiday resort.

Cyprus or Kypros in Greek is the third largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily and Sardinia, covering an area of approximately 9,251 square kilometers. It has a maximum length of 240 Kms from east to west and a maximum width of 100 Kms from north to south.

click to enlarge maps

Cyprus has a Mediterranean climate with typical seasons, such as hot, dry summers from mid-May to mid-September and rainy, rather changeable winters from November to mid-March are separated by short autumn and spring seasons.
Summers are hot with temperatures ranging between 29 C and 40 C.
Winters are mild with temperatures ranging between10 C and 18 C.
Sunshine is abundant during the whole year and particularly from April to September when the average duration of bright sunshine exceeds 11 hours per day.

	Demography	Population of Main Towns (End 2003)

	Population (de jure): 818.200 (End 2003) 79,1%: Greek Cypriots (646.900) 10,7%: Turkish Cypriots (87.800) 10,2%: Foreign residents (83.500)	Lefkosia (Nicosia): 213.500 (part of Lefkosia in the Government controlled area) Lemesos (Limassol): 167.800 Larnaka: 74.700 Paphos: 49.700
Greek and Turkish are the official languages. English is widely spoken. French and German are also spoken within the tourism Industry.

Introduction - Although a small country, Cyprus has an almost overwhelmingly rich cultural heritage, which is evident from the vast number of ancient monuments and sites, castle and forts around the island. The purpose of this site is to help you discover and appreciate our cultural treasures. Wherever you travel you will find ancient monuments and sites, churches and monasteries bearing silent witness to over 9 000 years of civilization and history. Cyprus stands at the crossroads of Africa, Asia and Europe and this exotic mix is well-reflected in Cyprus' cultural history.
The antiquities of Paphos, the Neolithic Settlement of Choirokoitia, as well as nine Byzantine Churches from the region of Troodos are included in the official World Cultural Heritage list.


From Alexander the Great using Cyprus as a crossroad as entrance to the three continents, en route for his ever expanding empire, to Marc Anthony who gave Cyprus as a gift to Cleopatra, who later then resided on the island. Even Aphrodite, Goddess of beauty made Cyprus her home. By 1050 BC Cyprus can be considered a Greek island, with the language, culture and religion of Greece well established. Cyprus has ten city-kingdoms and by 800 BC it is a flourishing and prosperous country.

click to enlarge images

Nature Lovers and Ecotourism

Natural Vegetation
Notwithstanding its small size, Cyprus has a variety of natural vegetation. This includes forests of hardwood, evergreen and broadleaved trees such as pinus latepensis, cedar, cypressus and oak. According to Eratosthenes (3rd Century BC), a Greek botanist, most of Cyprus, even Messaoria, was heavily forested in antiquity, and considerable remnants of these forests survive on the Troodos and Keryneia (Kyrenia) ranges, and locally at lower altitudes.
About 17% of the whole island is being classified as woodland. Where the forest has been destroyed, tall shrub communities of arbutus and rachne, pistacia terebinthus, olea europea, quercus coccifera and styrax officinalis may survive, but such maquis is uncommon. Over most of the island untilled ground bears a grazed covering of garigue, largely composed of low bushes of cistus, genista sphacelata calycotoime villosa, lithospermum hispidulum, phaganalon rupestre and, locally, pistacia lentiscus.
Where grazing is excessive this covering is soon reduced, and an impoverished batha remains, consisting principally of thymus capitatus, sarcopoterium spinosum, and a few stunted herbs.

BIRDS AND ANIMALS

Cyprus has been endowed with a rich fauna including a large number of endemic birds, reptiles and animals. Because of its position, Cyprus is also a vital stop-over for thousands of migratory birds including flamingos which find the island an ideal place for both feeding and refuge on their way to Africa.. Among the animals the moufflon occupies an outstanding position and is considered as one of the natural treasures of the island. The moufflon belongs to the sheep family but this species is unique in the world. This animal, which is the symbol of the Cyprus Republic and is used on its coins, has long been in danger of extinction, but today is a fully protected species

ECOTOURISM
In recent years the government of Cyprus has acted proactively to limit over-development on the island. A building moratorium on coastal development was enacted in 1989 along with stricter guidelines to regulate other types of construction.
Tourism on a smaller scale is encouraged through the agrotourism programme, which provides funds for the restoration of houses in rural areas in preparation for their use as guest houses. As elsewhere around the world, tourism plays a continually increasing role in the Cypriot economy. However, the natural resources of the island are limited. Through water conservation efforts, controlled construction of new tourist developments and measures to protect sensitive environmental areas, tourism can play an important role in helping to preserve the ecology of Cyprus

Nature: More than seventeen percent of Cyprus is classified as woodland. All told there are 1,750 species of flowering plants in Cyprus, 127 of which grow nowhere else but on the island. Much of the forested area is in the foothills and peaks of the Troodos Mountains. Here, only about an hour away from the coast, it is possible to find yourself enshrouded in perfect, restorative silence. To explore the Troodos and Akamas Peninsula up close, you can hike or take organized 4x4 jeep excursions.

Donkeys and oxen are still used to plough some of them. Cultivated vineyards cover a large percentage of the country’s hilly and mountainous land, from sea level up to 1,500 metres, predominantly on the southern slopes of the Troodos in the Lemesos district and the southwestern in the Pafos district. There are four distinct wine tours that centre on these areas, which could range from a half-day to a week long or longer. Wine tasting figures prominently on all of these.

Wine Country Tours: In addition to being home to the world’s oldest continuously produced wine, sweet Commandaria, Cyprus boasts the highest production rate of grapes in the world in proportion to its size and population. Most Cyprus vineyards are small and grow indigenous varieties of grapes for wine.
The first tour is in Lemesos (Limassol) itself, where the four biggest wine companies in Cyprus have tasting rooms and shops. The Lemesos District East tour begins with a drive up the Troodos road (B8) from Lemesos to the Kourris Valley. There are wineries in the villages of Pytsilia, Mandria and Koilani, to name just a few. Vouni is home to some of Cyprus’s best vineyards for red grapes.

The Lemesos District West tour takes in several boutique wineries as well as the whitewashed village of Omodos, where there are three additional wineries. Just off the attractive central square, you can have an up-close look at a traditional wine press. The fourth wine tour explores mainly the highlands north of Pafos.

AGROTOURISM

an image of a typical cypriot village setting

Travel inland almost anywhere in Cyprus and you will come across ancient stone villages and hill towns that have changed little over the centuries.
There is no better way to slip into the rhythm of tradition than by staying in the heart of a Cypriot village - the aim of the agrotourism program. A comfortable room in a refurnished traditional house in the high season is reasonably priced. Many villages with agrotourism houses are near vineyards.

CYPRUS CLIMATE

Cyprus has an intense Mediterranean climate with the typical seasonal rhythm strongly marked in respect of temperature, rainfall and weather generally. Hot, dry summers from mid-May to mid-September and rainy, rather changeable winters from November to mid-March are separated by short autumn and spring seasons.

In summer the island is mainly under the influence of a shallow trough of low pressure extending from the great continental depression centred over southwest Asia. It is a season of high temperatures with almost cloudless skies.

In winter Cyprus is near the track of fairly frequent small depressions which cross the Mediterranean Sea from west to east between the continental anticyclone of Eurasia and the generally low pressure belt of North Africa. These depressions give periods of disturbed weather usually lasting for a day or so and produce most of the annual precipitation, the average rainfall from December to February being about 60% of the average annual total precipitation for the island as a whole, which is 500 mm.

Precipitation increases from 450 millimetres up the south-western windward slopes to nearly 1.100 millimetres at the top of the Troodos massif. On the leeward slopes amounts decrease steadily northwards and eastwards to between 300 and 400 millimetres in the central plain and the flat south-eastern parts of the island. The narrow ridge of the Kyrenia range, stretching 160kms from west to east along the extreme north of the island produces a relatively small increase in rainfall of around 550 millimetres along its ridge at an elevation of 1.000 metres. Statistical analysis of rainfall in Cyprus reveals a decreasing trend of rainfall amounts in the last 30 years.

Rainfall in the warmer months contributes little or nothing to water resources and agriculture. Autumn and winter rainfall, on which agriculture and water supply generally depend, is somewhat variable from year to year.

The average annual rainfall as a whole over the part of the island under government control, is about 500 millimetres but it was as low as 213 millimetres in 1972/73 and as high as 800 millimetres in 1968/69. Statistical analysis of rainfall in Cyprus reveals a decreasing trend of rainfall amounts in the last decades.

Snow occurs rarely in the lowland and on the Northern Range but falls every winter on ground above 1,000 metres usually occurring by the first week in December and ending by the middle of April. Although snow cover is not continuous, during the coldest months it may lie to considerable depths for several weeks especially on the northern slopes of Troodos.

Temperatures are high in summer and the mean daily temperature in July and August ranges between 29 C on the central plain to 22 C on the Troodos mountains, while the average maximum temperature for these months ranges between 36 C and 27 C respectively. Winters are mild with a mean January temperature of 10 C on the central plain and 3 C on the higher parts of the Troodos mountains and with an average minimum temperature of 5 C and 0 C respectively.

Relative humidity of the air is on average between 60% and 80% in winter and between 40% and 60% in summer with even lower values over inland areas around midday. Fog is infrequent and visibility is generally very good. Sunshine is abundant during the whole year and particularly from April to September when the average duration of bright sunshine exceeds 11 hours per day.

Winds are generally light to moderate and variable in direction. Strong winds may occur sometimes, but gales are infrequent over Cyprus and are mainly confined to exposed coastal areas as well as areas at high elevation.