49 Fun Facts About Cyprus

What is the capital and largest city of Cyprus?

Nicosia has been the seat of government since the 10th century; Venice ringed it with new walls in 1567, yet the city fell to a siege just three years later.

Cyprus is the third-largest island in the Mediterranean after which two?

Sicily and Sardinia are the only larger ones; despite its Greek-speaking majority, Cyprus lies far closer to Turkey, Syria and Lebanon than to the Greek mainland.

Which Shakespeare play is set mostly on Cyprus, then a possession of Venice?

Othello opens in Venice but soon moves to Cyprus, where the general is sent to defend the island from an enemy fleet that a storm destroys before it can attack.

Cyprus's capital holds what distinction among European capitals?

Last still-divided one: a UN buffer zone has cut through the old town since the 1960s, and the barricade across Ledra Street, its main shopping street, came down only in April 2008.

The coloured shape at the centre of the Cypriot flag depicts what?

Its own map: the 1960 flag was meant to be neutral, setting the island's outline above olive branches for peace, yet Greek and Turkish Cypriots mostly went on flying the flags of Greece and Turkey.

Which metal, mined on Cyprus since the Bronze Age, takes its English name from the island?

Copper is named after Cyprus: the Romans called it aes Cyprium, 'metal of Cyprus', later shortened to cuprum, because so much of their supply was mined on the island.

Which Greek goddess is said in mythology to have been born off the coast of Cyprus?

Aphrodite, in Hesiod's telling, rose from sea foam after Cronus maimed his father Uranus and hurled the severed parts into the sea; Cypriots point to the rock of Petra tou Romiou as the spot.

Halloumi, Cyprus's best-known cheese, is traditionally made from which milks?

Goat and sheep milk are the traditional mix; halloumi's unusually high melting point means it can be grilled or fried until golden without losing its shape.

Commandaria, a sweet dessert wine from Cyprus, is billed as what?

Oldest named one still produced: Commandaria is recognised as the oldest wine still made under its own name, which comes from the 'Commanderie', the crusader knights' estate where it was produced.

Which English king captured Cyprus in 1191 during the Third Crusade?

Richard I seized the island from the Byzantine rebel Isaac Komnenos in 1191 and sold it to the Knights Templar, who gave it up within a year.

Which French dynasty ruled the Kingdom of Cyprus for nearly three centuries after the Templars?

The Lusignans ruled from Guy of Lusignan's purchase in 1192 until the infant James III died in 1474; his mother Catherine Cornaro then reigned until Venice annexed the island in 1489.

Which empire ruled Cyprus for over three centuries from 1571 to 1878?

Ottoman armies landed in 1570 and ended Venetian rule; the last Venetian fortress held out under siege for almost a year before it surrendered in August 1571.

Britain took over Cyprus in 1878 in return for promising to help defend its previous rulers against which power?

Russia was the fear: under the Cyprus Convention, secretly agreed in June 1878, Britain got the island as a base in exchange for a pledge to resist Russian advances.

Which organisation led the 1950s armed campaign against British rule in Cyprus?

EOKA, led by Colonel Georgios Grivas, took up arms in 1955 to win union with Greece, yet the fight ended in 1959 with a deal for an independent Cyprus that ruled such a union out.

The Greek Cypriot goal of uniting the island with Greece was known by what name?

Enosis, Greek for 'union', nearly came about in 1915, when Britain offered Cyprus to Greece as a reward for joining the First World War; King Constantine chose neutrality and declined.

The first president of Cyprus, Makarios III, held what religious office?

Archbishop Makarios III led both church and state: the British exiled him to the Seychelles in 1956 for his part in the revolt, yet by 1960 he was the republic's first president.

Turkey invaded Cyprus on 20 July 1974, five days after a coup backed by whom?

The Greek military junta in Athens backed the 15 July 1974 coup by the Cypriot National Guard against Makarios; Turkey invoked the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee to intervene.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, declared in 1983, is recognised by how many countries?

One: only Turkey recognises it. The UN Security Council called the 1983 declaration legally invalid and urged every other state not to recognise the breakaway north.

What is the UN-patrolled buffer zone that cuts across Cyprus commonly called?

The Green Line runs about 180 km across the island, only a few metres wide in places; some 10,000 people still live or work in its villages, while its emptier stretches, largely untouched by people, have become a haven for wildlife.

The UN reunification plan rejected by three-quarters of Greek Cypriots was named after which secretary-general?

Kofi Annan's plan for a federal Cyprus won 65% of Turkish Cypriot votes but was rejected by 76% of Greek Cypriots in the April referendums held a week before EU accession.

Which island nation joined the EU alongside Cyprus?

Malta joined alongside Cyprus and eight central and eastern European states on 1 May 2004; because reunification had been voted down a week earlier, EU law is suspended in the Cypriot north.

Which currency did Cyprus use from 1879 until the euro arrived in 2008?

The Cypriot pound, introduced under British rule, gave way to the euro on 1 January 2008, but only in the south: the breakaway north had already adopted the Turkish lira.

The 2013 Cypriot bailout was notable for seizing a share of what?

Uninsured bank deposits over €100,000 paid for the rescue: Laiki Bank was wound down and big savers at the Bank of Cyprus saw 47.5% of their money turned into shares, while smaller accounts were guaranteed.

Cyprus is one of only three EU countries where vehicles do what?

Drive on the left: a legacy of British rule, which is why the only other EU members that share the habit are two more islands once governed from London.

The highest point of Cyprus shares its name with which mountain in Greece?

Olympus, about 1,950 m high and snowy enough for a ski season, was once sea floor: its range is a slab of ancient ocean crust thrust up from the deep.

Which two mountain ranges dominate Cyprus, enclosing the central Mesaoria plain?

Troodos and Kyrenia flank the plain; a peak that looks like five fingers, Pentadaktylos in Greek, gives all or part of the slender northern range its other name.

Varosha, a resort district sealed off by the Turkish army in 1974, was the tourist quarter of which city?

Varosha was Famagusta's beachfront playground, a magnet for film stars, until its Greek Cypriot residents fled in 1974 and it was fenced off as a ghost town; part of the seafront reopened in 2020.

The Cyprus mouflon, found only in the island's mountain forests, is a wild relative of which animal?

Sheep: the Cyprus mouflon, or agrino, is the only large wild animal left on the island; once close to extinction, it has recovered under strict protection in its mountain forest.

Cypriot tennis player Marcos Baghdatis reached the final of which Grand Slam in 2006?

Australian Open: the unseeded Baghdatis won the first set of the 2006 final against top seed Roger Federer, then took only seven more games as Federer won in four sets.

Who sang 'Fuego', which finished second for Cyprus at Eurovision 2018?

Eleni Foureira had offered to sing for Greece in 2016, but its broadcaster turned her down; two years later she sang 'Fuego' for Cyprus instead and gave the island its best Eurovision result as of 2026.

The philosopher Zeno of Citium, born on Cyprus, founded which school of thought?

Zeno founded Stoicism around 300 BC, teaching at the Stoa Poikile, the painted colonnade in Athens that gave the school its name.

A 9,500-year-old Cypriot grave pushed back the earliest evidence for which pet by some 4,000 years?

Cats: at the Neolithic village of Shillourokambos a young cat lay buried beside a person, long before Egyptian art shows them; cats are not native to Cyprus, so people must have shipped them in.

Which conqueror ended Persian rule over Cyprus in the 330s BC?

Alexander the Great won over the Cypriot kings after the battle of Issus in 333 BC; their fleets helped him besiege Tyre, and the island later passed to the Ptolemies and then Rome.

Hala Sultan Tekke, a mosque and Muslim shrine, stands beside a salt lake near which Cypriot city?

Hala Sultan Tekke stands on the shore of Larnaca's salt lake; tradition holds that Umm Haram, a companion of the Prophet, died on the spot during the first Arab raids on Cyprus in the 640s.

Which Cypriot city, famed for its Roman mosaics, was a European Capital of Culture in 2017?

Paphos shared the 2017 title with Aarhus; its UNESCO-listed Tombs of the Kings are misnamed, since the rock-cut chambers are thought to have held nobles and officials rather than royalty.

Kykkos Monastery is famed for an icon of the Virgin said to have been painted by whom?

The Kykkos icon, among three attributed to the Apostle Luke, is said to have been given by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos from his palace in Constantinople around 1100.

Each of Cyprus's six districts is named after what?

Its chief town: every district shares the name of its capital, and since the island's division the districts in the Turkish Cypriot north have been run by a separate administration.

Under the 1960 constitution of Cyprus, which office was reserved for a Turkish Cypriot?

Vice-president, with a veto of his own: Turkish Cypriots, about 18% of the population, were also given three seats in every ten in parliament, but the post has stood empty since 1974.

Roughly how many Greek Cypriots fled south during the 1974 invasion?

About 170,000 is a middle estimate: UN counts run from 165,000 to 200,000 Greek Cypriots, while some 45,000 or more Turkish Cypriots moved north in turn.

The Cypriot dish sheftalia consists of what?

Minced meat wrapped in caul fat: sheftalia is a Cypriot sausage with no skin, bound instead in the lacy membrane that surrounds an animal's organs and cooked on a charcoal grill.

Within the EU, only cheese made in Cyprus may be sold as halloumi thanks to what?

Protected designation of origin status, awarded in 2021, covers the cheese under both its names, halloumi and Turkish hellim, so producers in the breakaway north can export it to the EU for the first time.

Cyprus won its first Olympic medal at London 2012 in which sport?

Sailing: Pavlos Kontides took silver in the one-person dinghy, the first medal under the Cypriot flag, although Cypriot-born athletes had been competing in Greek colours since 1896.

Which peninsula forms the long north-eastern 'panhandle' of Cyprus?

The Karpas peninsula tapers away to the north-east; its wild donkeys are largely a legacy of 1974, when fleeing Greek Cypriot farmers left their animals behind, and Cypriots from both sides campaigned together to protect them in 2008.

Which city became the chief port of Cyprus after 1974, when the old main harbour ended up north of the ceasefire line?

Limassol took over as chief port once the island's main harbour, on the east coast, fell on the Turkish side of the line; a new port able to take large ships had opened there that same year.

The 1974 invasion prompted which US response against Turkey in 1975?

An arms embargo was imposed on Turkey by Congress in 1975 because US-supplied equipment had been used in the invasion, and relations between the two NATO allies suffered badly.

The Turkish Cypriot counter-demand, calling for partition of the island, was known as what?

Taksim, Turkish for 'partition', arose in the 1950s as a reaction to the Greek Cypriot campaign for union; the 1959 independence settlement barred union and partition alike.

Which building did Cypriot rioters burn down in 1931?

Government House was set alight in October 1931 after a row over taxes fed calls for union with Greece; Britain answered by suspending the constitution and ruling the island by decree.

Who was sworn in as the eighth president of the Republic of Cyprus in February 2023?

Nikos Christodoulides, a former foreign minister who ran as an independent, won the February 2023 run-off against Andreas Mavroyiannis and took office on 28 February.

Cyprus's independence in 1960 was set out in agreements signed in London and which other city?

The Zürich agreement of February 1959 between Greece and Turkey was confirmed in London days later with the British; all three became guarantor powers, a status Turkey cited in 1974.