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Location: Middle East, island in the Mediterranean Sea,
south of Turkey
Geographic coordinates: 35 00 N, 33 00 E
Map references: Middle East
Area:
total: 9,250 sq km (of which 3,355 sq km are in the Turkish
Cypriot area)
land: 9,240 sq km
water: 10 sq km
Area - comparative: about 0.6 times the size of Connecticut
Land boundaries: 0 km
Coastline: 648 km
Maritime claims:
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: temperate, Mediterranean with hot, dry summers
and cool, winters
Terrain: central plain with mountains to north and south;
scattered but significant plains along southern coast
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
highest point: Olympus 1,951 m
Natural resources: copper, pyrites, asbestos, gypsum, timber,
salt, marble, clay earth pigment
Land use:
arable land: 12%
permanent crops: 5%
permanent pastures: 0%
forests and woodland: 13%
other: 70% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 390 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: moderate earthquake activity
Environment - current issues: water resource problems (no
natural reservoir catchments, seasonal disparity in rainfall, sea
water intrusion to island's largest aquifer, increased salination
in the north); water pollution from sewage and industrial wastes;
coastal degradation; loss of wildlife habitats from urbanization
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
Change-Kyoto Protocol, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification,
Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban,
Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution
signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic
Pollutants
Geography
Cyprus, republic, and third largest island in the Mediterranean
Sea, located west of Syria and south of Turkey. The island has a
maximum length of about 220 km (about 140 mi) from Cape Andreas
in the northeast to the western extremity of the island.
Its maximum width, from Cape Gαta in the south to Cape Kormakiti
in the north, is about 90 km (about 60 mi). The total area of the
country is 9,251 sq km (3,572 sq mi). Nicosia is the capital and
largest city.
Since 1974 the northern third of Cyprus has been occupied by Turkish
troops and has formed a separate-though officially unrecognized-state
called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Climate
Cyprus has a typical Mediterranean climate, with hot and dry summers
and a cool, rainy season that extends from October to March. The
mean annual temperature is 21° C (69° F). The annual rainfall averages
less than 500 mm (less than 20 in).
Cyprus is an island country in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean
Sea. It lies about 64 kilometres south of Turkey and 100 kilometres
west of Syria.
Geographically, Cyprus is part of Asia. But its people live much
like southern Europeans and have a relatively high standard of living.
Cyprus is a scenic country noted for its hilltop castles, old churches,
beaches, and rugged mountains.
Independence from the UK was approved in 1960 with constitutional
guarantees by the Greek Cypriot majority to the Turkish Cypriot
minority.
In 1974 a Greek-sponsored attempt to seize the government was met
by military intervention from Turkey, which soon controlled almost
40% of the island.
In 1983 the Turkish-held area declared itself the Turkish Republic
of Northern Cyprus, but it is recognized only by Turkey. Cyprus
talks resumed in December 1999 to prepare the ground for a comprehensive
settlement.
Cyprus
GEOGRAPHY
Size: Third largest island in Mediterranean, after
Sicily and Sardinia. 9,251 square kilometers, of which 1,733 square
kilometers forested. Length, 225 kilometers; maximum breadth, 96.5
kilometers. Situated in eastern Mediterranean, about 386 kilometers
north of Egypt, 97 kilometers west of Syria, and 64 kilometers south
of Turkey.
Topography: Principal topographic features Troodos
Mountains: dry limestone hills including Kyrenia Range; a broad
inland plain--the Mesaoria; and narrow coastlands. Highest peak
of Troodos Mountains, Mount Olympus, rises to 1,952 meters. Winter
rivers starting in the Troodos flow rapidly in all directions. Two
large salt lakes; many springs along the sides of Troodos Mountains
and Kyrenia Range.
Climate: Mediterranean, with cycle of hot, dry
summers from June to September, rainy winters from November to March,
and brief spring and fall seasons between. Substantial differences,
both daily and seasonally, in temperatures of coastal and inland
areas.
Data as of January 1991
Cyprus
Geography
The physical setting for life on the island is dominated by the
mountain masses and the central plain they encompass, the Mesaoria
. The Troodos Mountains cover most of the southern and western portions
of the island and account for roughly half its area. The narrow
Kyrenia Range, extending along the northern coastline, occupies
substantially less area, and elevations are lower. The two mountain
systems run generally parallel to the Taurus Mountains on the Turkish
mainland, whose silhouette is visible from northern Cyprus. Coastal
lowlands, varying in width, surround the island.
Data as of January 1991
Cyprus
Terrain
The rugged Troodos Mountains, whose principal range stretches from
Pomos Point in the northwest almost to Larnaca Bay on the east,
are the single most conspicuous feature of the landscape. Intensive
uplifting and folding in the formative period left the area highly
fragmented, so that subordinate ranges and spurs veer off at many
angles, their slopes incised by steep-sided valleys. In the southwest,
the mountains descend in a series of stepped foothills to the coastal
plain.
While the Troodos Mountains are a massif formed of molten igneous
rock, the Kyrenia Range is a narrow limestone ridge that rises suddenly
from the plains. Its easternmost extension becomes a series of foothills
on the Karpas Peninsula. That peninsula points toward Asia Minor,
to which Cyprus belongs geologically.
Even the highest peaks of the Kyrenia Range are hardly more than
half the height of the great dome of the Troodos massif, Mount Olympus
(1,952 meters), but their seemingly inaccessible, jagged slopes
make them considerably more spectacular. British writer Lawrence
Durrell, in Bitter Lemons, wrote of the Troodos as "an
unlovely jumble of crags and heavyweight rocks" and of the Kyrenia
Range as belonging to "the world of Gothic Europe, its lofty crags
studded with crusader castles."
Rich copper deposits were discovered in antiquity on the slopes
of the Troodos. Geologists speculate that these deposits may have
originally formed under the Mediterranean Sea, as a consequence
of the upwelling of hot, mineral-laded water through a zone where
plates that formed the ocean floor were pulling apart.
Data as of January 1991
Cyprus
Drainage
Deforestation over the centuries has damaged the island's drainage
system and made access to a year-round supply of water difficult.
A network of winter rivers rises in the Troodos Mountains and flows
out from them in all directions. The Yialias River and the Pedhieos
River flow eastward across the Mesaoria into Famagusta Bay; the
Serraghis River flows northwest through the Morphou plain. All of
the island's rivers, however, are dry in the summer. An extensive
system of dams and waterways has been constructed to bring water
to farming areas.
The Mesaoria is the agricultural heartland of the island, but its
productiveness for wheat and barley depends very much on winter
rainfall; other crops are grown under irrigation. Little evidence
remains that this broad, central plain, open to the sea at either
end, was once covered with rich forests whose timber was coveted
by ancient conquerors for their sailing vessels. The now-divided
capital of the island, Nicosia, lies in the middle of this central
plain.
Data as of January 1991
Cyprus
Climate
The Mediterranean climate, warm and rather dry, with rainfall mainly
between November and March, favors agriculture. In general, the
island experiences mild wet winters and dry hot summers. Variations
in temperature and rainfall are governed by altitude and, to a lesser
extent, distance from the coast.
The higher mountain areas are cooler and moister than the rest
of the island. They receive the heaviest annual rainfall, which
may be as much as 1,000 millimeters. Sharp frost also occurs in
the higher districts, which are usually blanketed with snow during
the first months of the year. Plains along the northern coast and
in the Karpas Peninsula area average 400 to 450 millimeters of annual
rainfall. The least rainfall occurs in the Mesaoria, with 300 to
400 millimeters a year. Variability in annual rainfall is characteristic
for the island, however, and droughts are frequent and sometimes
severe. Earthquakes, usually not destructive, occur from time to
time.
Summer temperatures are high in the lowlands, even near the sea,
and reach particularly uncomfortable readings in the Mesaoria. Because
of the scorching heat of the lowlands, some of the villages in the
Troodos have developed as resort areas, with summer as well as winter
seasons. The mean annual temperature for the island as a whole is
about 20° C. The amount of sunshine the island enjoys enhances
the tourist industry. On the Mesaoria in the eastern lowland, for
example, there is bright sunshine 75 percent of the time. During
the four summer months, there is an average of eleven and one-half
hours of sunshine each day, and in the cloudiest winter months there
is an average of five and one-half hours per day.
Data as of January 1991
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