Best Luxury Hotels Worldwide

Cyprus is a Eurasian island in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea south of the Anatolian peninsula (Asia Minor) or modern-day Turkey.

The third largest island in the Mediterranean, it is currently divided into four main portions:

the southern Republic of Cyprus (the predominantly Greek island nation-state), the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the United Nations-controlled Green Line separating the two, and two British Sovereign Base Areas.

There are but small traces of the Stone Age, but the Bronze Age was characterized by a well-developed and clearly marked civilization. The people quickly learned to work the rich copper mines of the island. The Mycenæan civilization seems to have reached Cyprus at around 1600 B.C. and several Greek and Phœnician settlements that belong to the Iron Age can be found on the island. Cyprus was invaded by Thothmes III of Egypt about 1500 B.C., and was forced to pay tribute.