Cyprus was declared an independent state on August 16, 1960. The constitution of the new state, which was defined by the Zürich and London Agreements, was drawn up in terms that explicitly defined the two main ethnic communities in Cyprus, the numerically larger Greek Cypriot community at approximately 80% of the total Cypriot population and […]

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Cyprus became part of the Byzantine Empire after the partitioning of the Roman Empire in 395, and remained so for almost eight hundred years, interrupted by a brief period of Arab domination and influence.
After the rule of the rebellious Byzantine Emperor Isaac Komnenos, King Richard I of England captured the island in 1191 during the […]

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Cyprus is the legendary birthplace of the goddess of beauty and love, the beautiful Aphrodite (also known as Kypris or the Cyprian). According to Hesiod’s Theogony, the goddess emerged fully grown from the sea where the severed genitals of the god Uranus were cast by his son, Kronos, causing the sea to foam (Greek: Aphros). […]

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Over the past twenty years there have been a number of discoveries that have greatly enhanced our knowledge of the early prehistory of Cyprus. Currently, the earliest confirmed site of human activity on the island is Aetokremnos situated on the Akrotiri Peninsula on the south coast. This site indicates that hunter-gatherers were active on the […]

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The name Cyprus has a somewhat uncertain etymology. Suggestion is that it comes from the Greek word for the Mediterranean cypress tree (Cupressus sempervirens), κυπάρισσος (kypárissos) or even from the Greek name of the henna plant (Lawsonia alba), κύπρος (kýpros). Another school suggests that it stems from the Eteocypriot word for copper. Dossin, for example, […]

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Cyprus (Greek: Κύπρος, Kýpros; Turkish: Kıbrıs), officially the Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία, Kypriakí Dhimokratía) is a Eurasian island country in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey (Anatolia). It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Mediterranean, attracting over […]

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