Cyprus - Geography
The law penalizes the use of geographical names and toponyms in the country other than those included in the gazetteer the government presented at the 1987 Fifth UN Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names. According to the law, anyone who publishes, imports, distributes, or sells maps, books, or any other documents in print or digital form that contain geographical names and toponyms on the island of Cyprus other than those permitted, commits an offense punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine of up to 50,000 euros ($55,000), or both.
Cyprus is situated at the crossroads of three continents – Europe, Africa, and Asia – as such it occupies a strategic place in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Cyprus lies in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, adjoining Asia Minor and Syria, being separated from the former by a strait called the Sea of Ciliria. It is about one hundred and forty miles long, and fifty miles broad. A range of mountains runs through the island from east to west, called Olympus by the ancients. The highest Shmmits are about seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. The plains and hill sides are very fertile, producing corn and wine in abundance: the latter is regarded as the staple production of the island.
Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean, situated 60km south of Turkey and 300km north of Egypt. It has 2 mountain ranges – the Pentadaktylos range (max height 1,042 m) along the north coast and the Troodos massif (Mt Olympus 1,953 m) in the central and south-western parts of the island. Between the 2 ranges lies the plain of Messaoria. Climate is Mediterranean – hot, dry summers and changeable winters.
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.
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.
Whereas 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.
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 Serakhis 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.
Cyprus is located in a relatively high seismic activity area, although the high risk area is limited to the western part of the island (Paphos region). Although no major earthquakes have been felt for several years, small magnitude tremors are common. It is advisable, in the event of an earthquake, to respect the usual safety instructions in this area.
In both parts of the island, it is advisable not to approach by boat the maritime extension of the line separating the north from the south. The checks and interceptions by the Turkish Cypriots of boats crossing the line from the southern part to the northern part are almost systematic.
The Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) are sovereign British territory and cover 98 square miles of the island of Cyprus. The SBAs are purely military in nature. They are run by the SBA Administration and have their own legislation, police force and courts. They are very closely linked with the Republic of Cyprus with whom they are in a customs and currency union.
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