Geography and Environment of Cyprus

Cyprus is in the eastern Mediterranean Basin, 44 miles south of Turkey, 64 miles west of Syria, and 150 miles north of the Nile Delta. Its strategic location at the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, makes visits to those regions quite easy. The island has a maximum length of 142 miles from northeast to southwest and a maximum width of 60 miles from north to south. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean, after Sicily and Sardinia, with an area of 3,572 square miles. Two mountain ranges dominate the landscape. The narrow and largely barren Kyrenia Range in the north (maximum elevation 3,360 feet) rises almost directly up from the northern coastline and follows it from east to west for some 80 miles. The forest‑covered Troodos Range rises in the southwestern sector of the island, culminating in Mount Olympus at an altitude of 6,400 feet. Between the two ranges, extending from Morphou Bay in the west to Famagusta Bay in the east lies the Mesaoria, meaning "between the mountains," a broad, fertile, coastal plain which produces most of the island’s cereal grains and other crops. Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, is on the Mesaoria. Throughout the long summer the plain is arid and parched, but in the winter and spring it is carpeted with a lush growth of young wheat and barley. Cyprus supports a varied flora with some 1,800 different species of flowering plants, including over 120 endemic plants. Additionally, Cyprus is host to a diverse group of bird and insect fauna, as well as a surprising range of reptiles and amphibians.

Detailed geography