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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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The UN Buffer Zone is shown in light blue on the map.

The United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus is a former demilitarized zone, patrolled by the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), that was established between 1964 and 1990. It was extended on 9 August after the Battle of Tillyria and extended again in 1974 after the ceasefire of 16 August 1974, following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the de facto partition of the island into the area controlled by the Republic of Cyprus (excluding the British Sovereign Base Areas) and the largely unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north. The zone, also known as the Green Line (Greek: Πράσινη Γραμμή, Prasini Grammi; Turkish: Yeşil Hat), stretches for 180 kilometres (112 miles) from Paralimni in the east to Kato Pyrgos in the west, where a separate section surrounds Kokkina.

The dividing line is also referred to as the Attila Line, named after Turkey's 1974 military invasion, codenamed Operation Attila. The Turkish army has built a barrier on the zone's northern side, consisting mainly of barbed-wire fencing, concrete wall segments, watchtowers, anti-tank ditches, and minefields. The zone cuts through the centre of Nicosia, separating the city into southern and northern sections. In total, it spans an area of 346 square kilometres (134 sq mi), varying in width from less than 20 metres (66 ft) to more than 7 kilometres (4.3 mi). After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Nicosia remains the last divided capital in Europe. Some 10,000 people live in several villages and work on farms located within the zone; the village of Pyla is famous for being one of the few remaining villages in Cyprus where Greek and Turkish Cypriots still live side by side. Other villages are Deneia, Athienou, and Troulloi. Some areas are untouched by human interference and have remained a safe haven for flora and fauna. (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 1Cyprus is part of a monetary union, the eurozone (dark blue) and of the EU single market. (from Cyprus)
Image 2Presidential Palace, Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 3Typical Cypriot architecture in old part of Nicosia, Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 4Cypriot demonstrations for Enosis (Union) with Greece. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 5Ayia Paraskevi Byzantine church in Yeroskipou, Cyprus (from History of Cyprus)
Image 6Cypriot Halloumi (from Cyprus)
Image 7Zeno of Citium, founder of the Stoic school of philosophy (from Cyprus)
Image 8The Troodos Mountains experience heavy snowfall in winter. (from Cyprus)
Image 9Cyprus in 1482 (from History of Cyprus)
Image 10Street in the divided capital of Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 11Dhekelia Power Station (from Cyprus)
Image 12Opening of Ledra Street in April 2008 (from Cyprus problem)
Image 13Proposed flag of the United Republic of Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 14Khirokitia archeological site. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 15Cypriot meze (from Cyprus)
Image 16Kouris Dam overflow in April 2012 (from Cyprus)
Image 17Archaeological site of Khirokitia with early remains of human habitation during the Aceramic Neolithic period (reconstruction) (from Cyprus)
Image 18Büyük Han, a caravanserai in Nicosia, is an example of the surviving Ottoman architecture in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 19Varosha (Maraş), a suburb of Famagusta, was abandoned when its inhabitants fled in 1974 and remains under Turkish military control. (from Cyprus)
Image 20Supreme Court of Justice (from Cyprus)
Image 21Nikos Christodoulides, President of Cyprus since February 2023 (from Cyprus)
Image 22Welcoming ceremony of the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev by the soldiers of the Cypriot National Guard (from Cyprus)
Image 23Population growth, 1961–2003 (numbers for the entire island, excluding Turkish settlers residing in Northern Cyprus) (from Cyprus)
Image 24
Accession of Cyprus to the European Union in 2004
(from Cyprus problem)
Image 25A British soldier facing a crowd of Greek Cypriot demonstrators in Nicosia (1956) (from Cyprus)
Image 26Turkish 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 27Zeus Keraunios, 500–480 BC, Nicosia museum (from Cyprus)
Image 28Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Centre in Limassol (from Cyprus)
Image 29Cypriot cult image. 'Red Polished Ware', 2100–2000 BC. Museum zu Allerheiligen (from History of Cyprus)
Image 30Laouto, dominant instrument of the Cypriot traditional music (from Cyprus)
Image 31Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, consecrated in 1328, the largest medieval building in Famagusta, where the Kings of Cyprus were crowned also as Kings of Jerusalem. In 1571 having fallen to the Ottoman Empire it became the Mosque of Mağusa, and remains a mosque today (from History of Cyprus)
Image 322010 population by age and gender (from Cyprus)
Image 33Foreign Ministers of the European Union countries in Limassol during Cyprus Presidency of the EU in 2012 (from Cyprus)
Image 34The north–south checkpoint has been open since 2003. (from Cyprus problem)
Image 35The "Green Line" in Nicosia, Cyprus (from Cyprus problem)
Image 36"TAKSİM" (division) graffiti on a wall in Nicosia in the late 1950s (from Cyprus problem)
Image 37Street close to the Nicosia border (from Cyprus problem)
Image 38Ioannis 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 39Limassol General Hospital (from Cyprus)
Image 40Statue of Liberty symbolising the independence of Cyprus. (from History of Cyprus)
Image 41Greek Cypriot demonstrations for Enosis (union with Greece) in 1930 (from Cyprus)
Image 42Red-polished ceramics from Enkomi, 1900–1725 BC. St. Barnabas Archaeological Museum, Salamis, Cyprus (from History of Cyprus)
Image 43The Armenian alphabet at the Melkonian Educational Institute. Armenian is recognised as a minority language in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)
Image 44Central Bank of Cyprus (from Cyprus)
Image 45Base ring vessel of Late Bronze Age (from History of Cyprus)
Image 46Ethnic map of Cyprus according to the 1960 census (from Cyprus)
Image 47Hoisting the British flag at Nicosia (from Cyprus)
Image 48UN tower in the buffer zone (from Cyprus)
Image 49Sea caves at Cape Greco (from Cyprus)
Image 50Faneromeni School is the oldest all-girls primary school in Cyprus. (from Cyprus)