Portal:Cyprus

The Cyprus Portal

Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, located off the coast of the Levant in West Asia. Cyprus’ capital is Nicosia, while its largest municipality is Limassol. The northeast portion of the island is occupied by Turkey, which is separated from the Republic of Cyprus by the United Nations Buffer Zone. In the south of the island of Cyprus are the British sovereign military bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The island is the third largest and third most populous in the Mediterranean, after Sicily and Sardinia.

Cyprus was first settled by hunter-gatherers around 13,000 years ago, with farming communities emerging by 8500 BC. The late Bronze Age saw the emergence of Alashiya, an urbanised society closely connected to the wider Mediterranean world. Cyprus experienced waves of settlement by Mycenaean Greeks at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Owing to its rich natural resources (particularly copper) and strategic position at the crossroads of Europe, Africa, and Asia, the island was subsequently contested and occupied by several empires, including the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Persians, from whom it was seized in 333 BC by Alexander the Great. Successive rule by Ptolemaic Empire, the Classical and Eastern Roman Empire, Arab caliphates, the French Lusignans, and the Venetians was followed by over three centuries of Ottoman dominion (1571–1878). Cyprus was placed under British administration in 1878 pursuant to the Cyprus Convention and formally annexed by the United Kingdom in 1914.

The island's future became a matter of disagreement between its Greek and Turkish communities. Greek Cypriots sought enosis, or union with Greece, which became a Greek national policy in the 1950s. Turkish Cypriots initially advocated for continued British rule, then demanded the annexation of the island to Turkey, with which they established the policy of taksim: portioning Cyprus and creating a Turkish polity in the north of the island. Following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. The crisis of 1963–64 brought further intercommunal violence between the two communities, displaced more than 25,000 Turkish Cypriots into enclaves, and ended Turkish Cypriot political representation. On 15 July 1974, a coup d'état was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta. This action precipitated the Turkish invasion of Cyprus on 20 July, which captured the present-day territory of Northern Cyprus and displaced over 150,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots. A separate Turkish Cypriot state in the north was established by unilateral declaration in 1983, which was widely condemned by the international community and remains recognised only by Turkey. These events and the resulting political situation remain subject to an ongoing dispute. (Full article...)

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Trees of Mount Olympus

Troodos or Trodos is the largest mountain range in Cyprus, located roughly in the centre of the island. Its highest peak is Mount Olympus – also known in Greek as Χιονίστρα (Hionistra) - at 1,952 metres (6,404 ft).

Covering a third of Cyprus's area, the Troodos mountain range stretches across most of the western side of the island. The mountains form a significant rain shadow on the island. There are many mountain resorts, Byzantine monasteries, and churches on the peaks, as well as villages nestling in its valleys and clinging to terraced hillsides. The area has been known since antiquity for its mines, which for centuries supplied copper to the entire Mediterranean. During the Byzantine period it became a centre of Byzantine art, as churches and monasteries were built in the mountains, away from the threatened coastline. (Full article...)

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Cyprus news

26 November 2025 – Cyprus–Lebanon relations: Cyprus and Lebanon sign a long-delayed maritime boundary agreement. (AP via ABC News)

General images

The following are images from various Cyprus-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Greek Cypriot demonstrations for Enosis (union with Greece) in 1930 (from Cyprus)
Image 2Atatürk Square, North Nicosia, in 2006 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 3A British soldier facing a crowd of Greek Cypriot demonstrators in Nicosia (1956) (from Cyprus)
Image 4
  Under the control of the Republic of Cyprus
  The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
  Turkey
  Greece
(from Cyprus problem)
Image 5Ioannis Kigalas (c. 1622–1687) was a Nicosia born Greek Cypriot scholar and professor of philosophy who was largely active in the 17th century. (from Cyprus)
Image 6Zeus Keraunios, 500–480 BC, Nicosia museum (from Cyprus)
Image 7The "Green Line" in Nicosia, Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 8Khirokitia archeological site. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 9Dhekelia Power Station (from Cyprus)
Image 10Street in the divided capital of Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 11Büyük Han, a caravanserai in Nicosia, is an example of the surviving Ottoman architecture in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 12Turkish Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs Feridun Sinirlioğlu (Left) and the Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis (Right), in Ankara, within the scope of the 2014 Cyprus talks (from Cyprus problem)
Image 13Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Centre in Limassol (from Cyprus)
Image 14Cypriot Halloumi (from Cyprus)
Image 15Nikos Christodoulides, President of Cyprus since February 2023 (from Cyprus)
Image 16The Armenian alphabet at the Melkonian Educational Institute. Armenian is recognised as a minority language in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 17Street close to the Nicosia border (from Cyprus problem)
Image 18
Accession of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004
(from Cyprus problem)
Image 19Cyprus is part of a monetary union, the eurozone (dark blue) and of the EU single market. (from Cyprus)
Image 20Ayia Paraskevi Byzantine church in Yeroskipou, Cyprus (from History of Cyprus)
Image 21A map showing the division of Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 22Cypri insvlae nova descript. 1573, Ioannes à Deutecum f[ecit]. "Map of the island of Cyprus, newly drawn by Johannes van Deutecom in 1573." (from Cyprus)
Image 23Central Bank of Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 24A Greek Cypriot demonstration in the 1930s in favour of Enosis (union) with Greece (from Cyprus problem)
Image 25Sea caves at Cape Greco (from Cyprus)
Image 26Cypriot style café in an arcade in Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 27Cypriot cult image. 'Red Polished Ware', 2100–2000 BC. Museum zu Allerheiligen (from History of Cyprus)
Image 28Laouto, dominant instrument of the Cypriot traditional music (from Cyprus)
Image 29Kyrenia Castle was originally built by the Byzantines and enlarged by the Venetians. (from Cyprus)
Image 30UN tower in the buffer zone (from Cyprus)
Image 31A Sentinel-2 image of Cyprus taken in 2022 (from Cyprus)
Image 32Base ring vessel of Late Bronze Age (from History of Cyprus)
Image 33Cyprus in 1482 (from History of Cyprus)
Image 34Typical Cypriot architecture in old part of Nicosia, Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 35Hoisting the British flag at Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 362010 population by age and gender (from Cyprus)
Image 37Limassol General Hospital (from Cyprus)
Image 38Zeno of Citium, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy (from Cyprus)
Image 39Proposed flag of the United Republic of Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 40Presidential Palace, Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 41Cypriot demonstrations for Enosis (Union) with Greece. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 42Cypriot meze (from Cyprus)
Image 43Ottoman admiral, geographer and cartographer Piri Reis' historical map of Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 44Varosha (Maraş), a suburb of Famagusta, was abandoned when its inhabitants fled in 1974 and remains under Turkish military control. (from Cyprus)
Image 45Kouris Dam overflow in April 2012 (from Cyprus)
Image 46The Troodos Mountains experience heavy snowfall in winter. (from Cyprus)
Image 47The Walls of Nicosia were built by the Venetians to defend the city in case of an Ottoman attack. (from Cyprus)
Image 48Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan was the creator of the Annan plan. (from Cyprus problem)
Image 49Red-polished ceramics from Enkomi, 1900–1725 BC. St. Barnabas Archaeological Museum, Salamis, Cyprus (from History of Cyprus)
Image 50Statue of Liberty symbolising the independence of Cyprus. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 51Foreign Ministers of the European Union countries in Limassol during Cyprus Presidency of the EU in 2012 (from Cyprus)
Image 52Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, consecrated in 1328, the largest medieval building in Famagusta, where the Kings of Cyprus were crowned also as Kings of Jerusalem. In 1571 having fallen to the Ottoman Empire it became the Mosque of Mağusa, and remains a mosque today (from History of Cyprus)
Image 53Faneromeni School is the oldest all-girls primary school in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 54Welcoming ceremony of the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev by the soldiers of the Cypriot National Guard (from Cyprus)
Image 55Archaeological site of Khirokitia with early remains of human habitation during the Aceramic Neolithic period (reconstruction) (from Cyprus)
Image 56Zeus Keraunios, 500-480 BC, Nicosia museum (from History of Cyprus)
Image 57A copper mine in Cyprus. In antiquity, Cyprus was a major source of copper. (from Cyprus)
Image 58Supreme Court of Justice (from Cyprus)
Image 59Population growth, 1961–2003 (numbers for the entire island, excluding Turkish settlers residing in Northern Cyprus) (from Cyprus)
Image 60The entrance of the historic Pancyprian Gymnasium (from Cyprus)
Image 61Turkish rally in Nicosia in January 1958 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 62The north–south checkpoint has been open since 2003. (from Cyprus problem)
Image 63Opening of Ledra Street in April 2008 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 64Landscape of Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 65"TAKSİM" (division) graffiti on a wall in Nicosia in the late 1950s (from Cyprus problem)
Image 66Ethnic map of Cyprus according to the 1960 census (from Cyprus)