Cyprus Scuba Diving
152 Dive Sites in 10 Destinations
-
Akamas Peninsula
(12)
-
Ayia Napa and Protaras
(25)
-
Cape Greco
(4)
-
Famagusta
(11)
-
Kyrenia
(22)
-
Larnaca Bay
(9)
-
Limassol
(12)
-
Nicosia
(0)
-
Paphos
(57)
-
Toxeftra
(0)
Cyprus, birthplace of the goddess of love, Aphrodite. According to ancient Greek myth she emerged fully grown from the sea at the legendary Petra Tou Romiou ("Aphrodite's Rock"), close to Paphos. Perhaps it is in ode to this beauty for whom the Cyprian sun shines a total of 340 bright days a year.
Cyprus resembles a place one would imagine the goddess of love would have been born, a tropical paradise graced with 127 endemic species of rare flowers. Its highest point is the summit of Mount Olympus. The Island lies south of Turkey in Mediterranean and attracts up to 2.4 million tourists each year and its early habitation is traced back to Aetokremnos, on the Akrotiri Peninsula to around 10,000 BC.
The years that ensued saw Cyprus pass hands many times like a rare jewel that all men want to possess. The Bronze Age marks the time of the Mycenean culture while Greek and Phoenician settlements dominated the Iron Age. Battles of epic proportion ensued between the Greeks and the Persians until Alexander the Great snatched it from under their noses on behalf of the Macedonians. Later, Cyprus was added to the Byzantine Empire until the early 1100's when King Richard captured it.
It was owned by the templars for a time and then Venice, after which a brutal invasion by the Ottoman Turks left the Cypriots helpless until it eventually ended up under British control around the late 1800s.
Read more
RSS Feeds
