Facts about Cyprus

History

For nine thousand years, Cyprus has been a melting pot of great civilizations. From the Neolithic settlements on the northern coast to the Egyptian, Persian, Roman, Venetian, Ottoman and British empires. Its strategic location at the crossroads of east and west has endowed the island with a rich and colorful history spanning centuries. During its living history, the island has been visited by Alexander the Great and Richard the Lionheart, to name a few and who have left their own unique footprints.

First settlers

To get a good sense of how it all began, the island’s museums are well worth a visit for their fascinating array of objects discovered in the caves dating back to 7000 BC when the first inhabitants of Cyprus are said to have settled on the island. From 3000-700 BC, Cyprus began to emerge as a trading center, with copper mines drawing merchants from across the Mediterranean. With new trade opportunities came settlers from Anatolia and the Phoenicians, bringing new architecture as well as ceramics and metalwork to the island.

Melting pot of great civilizations

The Persians first adopted Cyprus as a base for their wars with Greece in 545 BC which lasted until 331 BC. Then the Persian Empire was defeated by Alexander the Great. Egypt ruled for the next 250 years – a period that ended with Rome’s invasion of the island in 48 BC. The Roman Empire lasted only a few years, as Julius Caesar gave the island to his mistress, Cleopatra, as a gift of love.

Between 100 and 1000 AD, several societies emerged on the island, with Muslim and Byzantine settlers living in relative harmony – that is, until 965 AD, when the Byzantines took full control of the island after defeating Egyptian the fleet.

The Byzantine Empire lasted until the 13th century, when King Richard the Lionheart sold the island to Guy de Lusignan, a member of the French Middle Ages. The Lusignans, ruled for 300 years, from the 13th century until 1489, when the Venetians adopted the island and built the historic Girne Castle, as well as the famous architecture of Famagusta and Lefkoşa (Nicosia), which are all well worth a visit.

The Ottoman period in Cyprus began in 1571 and lasted for more than three centuries, during which time the two Cypriot communities, Turkish and Greek, began to form. It was during the later years of the Ottoman Empire, in an agreement dated 1869, that the British were given the right to rule Cyprus – lasting until the end of the First World War. Subsequently, the Treaty of London and Zurich was signed to grant independence to Cyprus as a partnership between the island and the Turkish and Greek populations. The guarantors of the new state were Great Britain, Greece and Turkey. But in 1963, relations between the two communities, separated by language, culture and religion, weakened and civil war broke out. The UN sent in troops in an attempt to restore peace, creating the Green Line, which effectively divided the two communities.

Division of the island

In 1974, after 11 years of friction between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, an attempted coup d’état took place by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta with the goal of achieving enosis (unification of the island with Greece). Turkey, which together with Greece and Great Britain were guarantor countries for Cyprus tried to get a monitoring force from the guarantor countries but Greece and Great Britain refused to participate. Therefore, Turkey used this as a pretext to intervene in the northern part of the island. With the aim of protecting the Turkish population. Turkish troops remained after a truce, resulting in the division of the island.