Cyprus - geography
Geographically Cyprus belongs to Asia; an underwater ridge connects the
island with Asia Minor. However, with its colonial connection to Britain and
close historical and cultural ties to Greece, Cyprus is often included in
Europe.
Population
The most recent census for the whole of Cyprus was conducted in 1973. Here
the population was 631,778, of which 77% were Greeks and 18% Turks. The rest
were of British, Armenian and Maronite descent. Since the Turkish occupation in
1974, the Turkish population has been concentrated in the northern,
Turkish-occupied third, while the Greeks live in the southern part. A 2001
census counted 689,565 in the Greek part. The growth since then and the
population on the Turkish part of the island means that a probable estimate for
the whole island for 2014 is approximately 1.17 million people.
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population pyramid and resident density about this country.
Nature conditions and agriculture
The climate is typically Mediterranean with hot, dry summers and mild, humid
winters. Precipitation and temperature vary; most precipitation is received by
the Troodos Mountains with over 1000 mm. In the winter, a lot of snow falls, and
you can ski on Mt. Olympos (1951 m) in January-March. Frost is never experienced
on the rain-poor Mesaoriaslette and in the coastal areas.
The relatively heavy rainfall and favorable soil make Cyprus a fertile
agricultural land, and until the mid-1980's, agriculture was the island's main
occupation. In the mild winter, large areas of barley are cultivated, and
typical Mediterranean crops such as wine, citrus fruits and olives are harvested
in addition to potatoes, vegetables, tobacco and carob bread. About one-fifth of
the area is under plowing, and a large part is irrigated; this applies
Mesaoriasletten, "Cyprus' granary". Only a few of the island's numerous
watercourses are aquifers in the summer, but in the mountain areas the winter
precipitation is dammed for use in irrigation.
At the beginning of our era, Cyprus was covered by forest and supplied timber
to the Eastern Mediterranean fleets. Widespread forests are now found only in
the Troodos Mountains and to a limited extent in the otherwise scrub-covered
Kyrenia Mountains. It is especially coniferous forest with cedar
trees. Since the 1980's, attempts have been made to expand the forest area
through extensive new plantings.
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song lyrics and singer about this country.
Economy
After the Turkish invasion, the tourism industry, which was especially
associated with the northern part of the island, moved south, and since 1986,
tourism has made the most important contribution to the Greek-Cypriot
economy. In 1994, 2.1 million visited. tourists this part of the island, most on
one or two weeks charter vacation. Over 10% of the workforce is directly linked
to tourism. The shipping, finance and industrial sectors have also overtaken
agriculture in economic terms. Cyprus' so-called open ship register ("flag of
convenience") houses 5% of the world's merchant fleet and was the fastest
growing fleet in the early 1990's. Greek, German and other European shipowners in
particular benefit from favorable registration and taxation rules as well as
lenient security controls. Also in other offshore businessCyprus is
growing in importance with a large number of international banks, insurance and
trading companies. Cyprus has good relations with the Middle East, Eastern
Europe and Russia.
Trade with the EU was growing following a 1988 customs agreement, and Cyprus
applied for accession to the EU from 1990. The official recording took place on
May 1, 2004.
The main products of the Cypriot industry are food (including preserves and
juices), clothing and footwear, much of which is exported, as well as cement.
In the 2000's. Cyprus experienced significant economic growth, not least
thanks to the financial sector. In 2012, the country was hit by a serious
banking crisis and had to be saved with an injection of 10 billion. euros from
the EU, the European Central Bank and the IMF.
Mining
is concentrated on asbestos and raw materials for the cement industry. Former
copper mining was discontinued in the 1970's when the mines were emptied. A few
years later, salt extraction from salt lakes near Larnaca and Limassol also
ceased, as production was no longer profitable.
The infrastructure
is quite well developed. The island has no railways, but the road network is
close and on the main routes expanded as motorways. Famagusta was Cyprus's most
important port until 1974, but after the Turkish occupation it is no longer
navigable by international traffic, which instead uses Limassol and
Larnaca. Larnaca also has the island's largest functioning airport. Nicosia
International Airport is located in the UN-monitored north-south no-man's land
(Attila Line) and has been closed since 1974.
Cyprus has two British military bases, Dekelia and Episkopi. The latter is
located on the Akrotiri Peninsula and has a military airport and a listening
station from which the entire Middle East is monitored. Also a British radar on
top of Mt. Olympos is used to monitor the region.
Cyprus - Geology
Cyprus consists of three areas, the so-called terranes, each with its own
geological history. The southwestern part, the Mamonia Terranet, is made up of
sea deposits and poodle lava from the period Triassic to Cretaceous; the
northern part, the Kyrenia Terranet, consists
of limestone and marl, greywacke and breccie from the Triassic to the
Paleocene. In between lies the Troodos terranet, which consists of ofiolite,
i.e. a piece of lithosphere plate, built at the bottom of material from the
Earth's mantle (peridotite), on which lie layers of gangue rocks (diabase), and
at the top with poodle lava and ocean deposits. Troodos are formed under the sea
in a local dispersal zone in the crust of the Cretaceous. During the volcanic
activity of the dispersal process, hot water with dissolved metal compounds
flowed onto the seabed. These compounds were deposited as sulfide minerals,
especially pyrite and chalcopyrite, on top of the poodle lavas, where they
formed massive ore bodies around the outflow sites, so-called black
smokers. The ore bodies are the basis for Cyprus' production of copper
since antiquity.
In the Late Cretaceous (about 80 million years before now), the terranes were
brought together by the northward movement of the African plate (see plate
tectonics). Mamonia and Kyrenia were deformed by the collisions and lay until
the Miocene (approximately 23-5.2 million) below sea level and were covered by limestone
deposits. From the Late Cretaceous to the Early Eocene (approximately 80-55 million before
now), Troodos was rotated 90 °Counterclockwise after being pushed from a
protruding part of the African plate. In connection with the plate's
submergence, Cyprus was then raised from a depth of 2000 m to sea level. Coral
reefs were formed, and during the drying up of the Mediterranean in the Late
Miocene, gypsum was deposited. Since the Pliocene, Cyprus has been further
elevated so that the central part of the island reaches almost 2000 m. At the
same time, the Kyrenia Mountains have been pushed up like steep flakes.
Cyprus - language
According to the Constitution, Greek and Turkish are the official
languages; many also speak English. Gradually, Greek has become the dominant
language in the Greek part and Turkish in the Turkish part of Cyprus, but there
are still many in the slightly older part of the population who speak both
languages. Both Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot are dialects that differ from
the language in resp. Greece and Turkey in terms of both pronunciation and
vocabulary. Among other things, based on teaching materials from the mother
countries, however, there has been an approximation to the national languages
since 1974; in the Turkish part also due to the large influx of Turks
from Anatolia, in the Greek part mainly due to the cultural cohesion of the
Greek Cypriots with Greece.
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