Concept

Cyprus

Summary
Cyprus (ˈsaɪprəs ), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It is geographically in West Asia, but culturally and geopolitically Southeast European. Cyprus is the third-largest and third-most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located north of Egypt, east of Greece, south of Turkey, and west of Lebanon and Syria. Its capital and largest city is Nicosia. The northeast portion of the island is governed by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a de facto state recognised only by Turkey. The earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC; it is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two distinct waves in the 2nd millennium BC, which left a lasting impact on the island's culture, language, and architecture; archaeological remains include well-preserved ruins such as Salamis and Kourion. As a strategic location in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus has been contested and occupied by various powers since antiquity; it was successively ruled by the Assyrians, Egyptians, and Persians before Alexander the Great seized it in 333 BC. Cyprus subsequently formed part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom until it was annexed by Rome in 58 BC. It remained part of the Eastern Roman Empire for the next thousand years, albeit intermittingly coming under Arab control, sometimes jointly with the Romans. The French Lusignan dynasty took control of the island during the Third Crusade of the late 12th century, succeeded by the Venetians in the late 15th century, from whom Cyprus was subsequently conquered by the Ottomans in 1571. The Ottoman period saw major demographic, political, and cultural changes, including the emergence of nascent Greek nationalism. Cyprus was secretly placed under the United Kingdom's administration based on the Cyprus Convention of 1878, and was formally annexed by the U.K. in 1914.
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