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 mainland in West Asia. The island of Cyprus, which is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, is divided along the United Nations Buffer Zone between the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Turkey. The south of the island also hosts the British sovereign military bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. The capital and largest city of Cyprus is Nicosia.

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 the 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 contested by 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: partitioning Cyprus and creating a Turkish polity in the north. 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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Port of Paphos

Paphos, also spelled Pafos, is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of the Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were known as Paphos: Old Paphos (now called Kouklia) and New Paphos. It is the fourth-largest city in the country, after Nicosia, Limassol, and Larnaca, with an urban population of 55,000.

The modern city of Paphos lies on the Mediterranean coast, about 50 km (30 mi) west of Limassol, the island's largest port; the two cities are connected by the A6 highway. Paphos International Airport is the country's second-largest airport, and serves as a gateway to western and southern Cyprus. The city has a subtropical-Mediterranean climate, and experiences the mildest temperatures on the island. (Full article...)

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Cyprus news

29 June 2026 – Gaza war protests: Over 150 demonstrators gather at the presidential palace in Cyprus over a Board of Peace multi-day meeting in the country. (Cyprus Mail)
24 May 2026 – 2026 Cypriot legislative election: Cypriots vote to elect 56 of the 80 seats in the House of Representatives. Recent opinion polls have indicated that the conservative DISY and the leftist AKEL are competing for first place, while the hard-right ELAM is also expected to make gains in the legislature. (Euronews) (DW) (Reuters); DISY wins the most with 17 seats, followed by AKEL in second with 15 seats and ELAM in third with eight seats. ALMA and Direct Democracy Cyprus enter the legislature with four seats each. (Phileleftheros)

General images

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

Image 1Archaeological site of Khirokitia with early remains of human habitation during the Aceramic Neolithic period (reconstruction) (from Cyprus)
Image 2Dhekelia Power Station (from Cyprus)
Image 3Population growth, 1961–2003 (numbers for the entire island, excluding Turkish settlers residing in Northern Cyprus) (from Cyprus)
Image 4Varosha (Maraş), a suburb of Famagusta, was abandoned when its inhabitants fled in 1974 and remains under Turkish military control. (from Cyprus)
Image 5Cyprus is part of a monetary union, the eurozone (dark blue) and of the EU single market. (from Cyprus)
Image 62010 population by age and gender (from Cyprus)
Image 7Red-polished ceramics from Enkomi, 1900–1725 BC. St. Barnabas Archaeological Museum, Salamis, Cyprus (from History of Cyprus)
Image 8Ayia Paraskevi Byzantine church in Yeroskipou, Cyprus (from History of Cyprus)
Image 9Büyük Han, a caravanserai in Nicosia, is an example of the surviving Ottoman architecture in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 10A British soldier facing a crowd of Greek Cypriot demonstrators in Nicosia (1956) (from Cyprus)
Image 11"TAKSİM" (division) graffiti on a wall in Nicosia in the late 1950s (from Cyprus problem)
Image 12The entrance of the historic Pancyprian Gymnasium (from Cyprus)
Image 13Kyrenia Castle was originally built by the Byzantines and enlarged by the Venetians. (from Cyprus)
Image 14A Sentinel-2 image of Cyprus taken in 2022 (from Cyprus)
Image 15A copper mine in Cyprus. In antiquity, Cyprus was a major source of copper. (from Cyprus)
Image 16Opening of Ledra Street in April 2008 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 17Ethnic map of Cyprus according to the 1960 census (from Cyprus)
Image 18Base ring vessel of Late Bronze Age (from History of Cyprus)
Image 19Cypri 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 20Proposed flag of the United Republic of Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 21Cypriot demonstrations for Enosis (Union) with Greece. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 22Zeus Keraunios, 500–480 BC, Nicosia museum (from Cyprus)
Image 23Ioannis 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 24
  Under the administration of the Republic of Cyprus
  Northern Cyprus
  Turkey
  Greece
(from Cyprus problem)
Image 25Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Centre in Limassol (from Cyprus)
Image 26A map showing the division of Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 27Street in the divided capital of Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 28Statue of Liberty symbolising the independence of Cyprus. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 29The Walls of Nicosia were built by the Venetians to defend the city in case of an Ottoman attack. (from Cyprus)
Image 30Foreign Ministers of the European Union countries in Limassol during Cyprus Presidency of the EU in 2012 (from Cyprus)
Image 31Faneromeni School is the oldest all-girls primary school in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 32Turkish 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 33Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan was the creator of the Annan plan. (from Cyprus problem)
Image 34Hoisting the British flag at Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 35Landscape of Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 36Street close to the Nicosia border (from Cyprus problem)
Image 37
Accession of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004
(from Cyprus problem)
Image 38Nikos Christodoulides, President of Cyprus since February 2023 (from Cyprus)
Image 39The north–south checkpoint has been open since 2003. (from Cyprus problem)
Image 40Zeno of Citium, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy (from Cyprus)
Image 41Laouto, dominant instrument of the Cypriot traditional music (from Cyprus)
Image 42Limassol General Hospital (from Cyprus)
Image 43Cyprus in 1482 (from History of Cyprus)
Image 44Welcoming ceremony of the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev by the soldiers of the Cypriot National Guard (from Cyprus)
Image 45Typical Cypriot architecture in old part of Nicosia, Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 46Cypriot meze (from Cyprus)
Image 47UN tower in the buffer zone (from Cyprus)
Image 48Kouris Dam overflow in April 2012 (from Cyprus)
Image 49Supreme Court of Justice (from Cyprus)
Image 50Cypriot style café in an arcade in Nicosia (from Cyprus)