r/geography • u/aceraspire8920 • Oct 29 '24
What is the most interesting fact about Cyprus? Discussion
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u/alfius-togra Oct 29 '24
In the past it was populated by pigmy hippopotami which were likely hunted to extinction by the first human settlers to arrive from the Levant.
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u/anormalgeek Oct 29 '24
They were deng tasty.
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u/DefinitelyNotAliens Oct 29 '24
My archaeology professor one time was referencing them and called then slow, tasty little meat nuggets.
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u/SageEel Oct 29 '24
Extinction? I thought Moo Deng was a pygmy hippo
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u/vambileo Political Geography Oct 29 '24
I assume they mean extinction on Cyprus
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u/hebrewimpeccable Oct 29 '24
Well yes, but it's a different type of hippo. The Cypriot hippos were dwarf versions of a common hippos ancestor - a similar species lived on Madagascar. Whereas the pygmy hippo is a different species entirely
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u/biscuitsandburritos Oct 29 '24
So, island dwarfism verse Pygmy hippo?
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u/hebrewimpeccable Oct 29 '24
Exactly that! There used to be many, many more species of hippo and they were far more widespread than they are now (until a hundred thousand years ago or so, there were hippos in the UK)
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u/MrBananaStand1990 Oct 29 '24
Interesting! Can you expand?
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u/Rhomaios Oct 29 '24
It's speculated that the symbol in question was the personal ensign of the then Byzantine doux and self-proclaimed Byzantine emperor Isaakios Komnenos. When Richard the Lionheart took over the island on his way to the 3rd Crusade, he allegedly rewarded the city of Portsmouth (that provided many of the ships and sailors of the campaign) with Isaakios' symbol. This explanation is somewhat disputed though, it was just generally common for western Europeans to take up such "oriental" symbols on their way back from the Crusades.
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u/Morichannn Oct 29 '24
Thus, Turkey has a crescent and star on a its flag.
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u/Rhomaios Oct 29 '24
That's unrelated to this case. Crescents were already common for Turkic battle standards, albeit there is an argument to be made about other Byzantine (not Cypriot) symbols having an influence too.
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u/obliqueoubliette Oct 29 '24
The crecent and star was the symbol of the ancient city of Byzantium before the 1st century BC. The Turks adopted it when they conquered Constantinople, and it became associated with Islam while the Turkish Sultan was also Calif
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u/Kernowder Oct 29 '24
There is a ski resort in Cyprus in the Troodos mountains.
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u/Erdkost Oct 29 '24
I was there in February 2023. Two days before I was able to swim in the sea at around 20°C and after a bit of driving I stood on the slightly snow-covered Mt. Olympus and was surprised to see the ski lift running. A nice contrast.
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u/dotancohen Oct 29 '24
Not uncommon. Mt Hermon in Israel and Anzali in Iran feature similar contrasts - skiing and swimming in the sea just an hour's drive away.
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u/andorraliechtenstein Oct 29 '24
And Spain, Sierra Nevada. But that would be 2 hours driving to be honest.
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u/dogsledonice Oct 29 '24
And Vancouver/Whistler
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Oct 29 '24
More like North Vancouver for skiing and urban Vancouver for swimming at the beach same day in the spring time.
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u/DRM2020 Oct 29 '24
Did you eve try to swim in Pudget Sound (or in ocean by PNW shore)? Like, it's still a liquid water, but just barely...
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u/Lexitech_ Oct 29 '24
In Southern California, too!
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u/I_AM_AN_ASSHOLE_AMA Oct 29 '24
Add in New Zealand as well.
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u/Smartyunderpants Oct 29 '24
It’s not a warm swim in NZ when the ski fields are open which I think is the original point
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u/CassieBeeJoy Oct 29 '24
When people visited us in the winter when my dad was working at Troodos Station people would be amazed when we said they should bring some warm clothes.
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u/Gruffleson Oct 29 '24
Norwegian tourists probably goes swimming in the ocean while the locals wears winter-cloths.
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u/fatbunyip Oct 29 '24
Not really any more.
In the 80s and early 90s, we'd get 2m of snow easy. These days, it's 50/50 if we get any snow at all.
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u/ahov90 Integrated Geography Oct 29 '24 edited Oct 29 '24
There were elephants at Cyprus, who arrived by swimming from Anatolia coast around 100 000 years ago. Modern distance is 40 miles, in Ice Age it was surely less, but anyway. Eaten by homo sapiences when they arrived later.
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u/Defiant_Still_4333 Oct 29 '24
That is... Super interesting. I had no idea elephants were such capable long distance swimmers
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u/Ceterum_Censeo_ Oct 29 '24
The real surprise is when you discover an elephant's closest living relatives are dugongs and manatees, as well as hyraxes (small rodent-like mammals). The longer you look, the stranger it gets!
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u/getupforwhat Oct 29 '24
Elephants have been caught swimming up to two miles offshore in the Indian Ocean
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u/Several-College-584 Oct 29 '24
What kind of bait were they caught on? Also, how big of a net does one need to land an Elephant?
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u/hemlockecho Oct 30 '24 edited Oct 30 '24
The book Song of the Dodo is a fantastic book about island biogeography. The author mentions that there are three land animals that are exceptional swimmers and so are (or more commonly were, before humans) found on islands all over the world world: deer, elephants, and pigs. All three have been known to swim for several miles across open ocean.
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u/ShoeIntelligent9128 Oct 29 '24 edited Oct 29 '24
Also , since elephants skull have a hole in the center , its possible that dwarf elephant fossils are the basis of the Cyclops of Greek mythology. Although this theory is heavily debunked ,int is interesting.
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u/duarchie Oct 30 '24
Those elephant skeletons were mistaken by the proof of cyclops existence by Greeks and Romans, due to the space left in the cranium by the trunk.
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u/boofdaddy93 Oct 29 '24
Through the rising and falling of sea level throughout history, Cyprus has always been an island. It also has homo erectus remains which shows they were most likely capable of crossing large bodies of water.
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u/Scott_Of_The_Antares Oct 29 '24
And in sufficient numbers to make a settlement viable. It is estimated that several crossings occurred and each most have has in excess of 1000 individuals to make it a success which points to reasonably advanced organisation of population along with the ability to make vessels capable of navigating 50-80 km of open sea and then actually making that journey long before recorded history.
Same original peopling of Australia and other places. Deep in ice age or way before.
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u/Napoleon_B Oct 29 '24 edited Oct 30 '24
I’ve been binging Mystery Road, an Australian series which delves pretty deep into Aboriginal culture in Western Australia (WA). I was stunned to learn the culture is 65,000 years old. Last ice age was 19-26,000 years ago.
I can see why Aboriginal and all indigenous cultures are angry at mercantilism. Not just the British obviously. And we can see how Japan wasn’t having it for a couple hundred years after the Portuguese left.
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u/oG_Goober Oct 29 '24
Source on Homo Erectus remains? All I can find is stone tools from 130k years ago. And most are crediting Neanderthals.
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u/skyasaurus Oct 29 '24
Random thought...would perhaps Homo Erectus been able to cross over during the Messinian Salinity Crisis ~5 million years ago? Does the timing line up?
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u/Icy-Conclusion-3500 Oct 29 '24
Unless we count when the whole (or most of) Mediterranean dried up, but no humans were around then, so that probably doesn’t matter.
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u/Bartek-BB Oct 29 '24
Over the centuries, it has been called by different names by different nations, but my favorite is Aphrodisia.
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u/QuietVisitor Oct 29 '24
After Aphrodite who legendarily washed ashore there amongst sea foam as her birth place.
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u/Bartek-BB Oct 29 '24
But let's not go into where this foam came from, according to the myths :p
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u/Defiant_Still_4333 Oct 29 '24
For those too lazy to Google, it's as bad as you thought...
Aphrodite was created from the foam of the sea caused by Cronus castrating his father Uranus and throwing his genitals into the water.
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u/111coo00pl Oct 29 '24
It was a very rich civilization during the bronze Age due to its large amounts of copper witch was used to make bronze.
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u/Katja_apenkoppen Oct 29 '24
They had so much copper, the word copper even derived from the word Cyprus!
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u/cheandbis Oct 29 '24
My wife does an amazing Cypriot Christmas dinner...
It's half Turkey, half Grease
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u/Passey92 Oct 29 '24
Copper derives its name from Cyprus (in English) as that is where it was mined heavily by the Romans.
It's possible Cyprus gets its name from an old Sumerian word for Copper, too, though this isn't certain.
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u/CreepyBlueBlob Oct 29 '24
Interesting, in the hebrew bible cyprus is called kaphtor, maybe there is an etymological connection
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u/OldManLaugh Cartography Oct 29 '24
Usually place names in the Bible (Torah more specifically) have more to do with the ancestor of the people who live there. Kaphtor is likely taken from the grandson of Noah, Kittim.
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u/longutoa Oct 29 '24
Copper mining on Cyprus goes back many thousands of years before the Roman’s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_industry_of_Cyprus
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u/PerpetuallyLurking Oct 29 '24
Yes, but the English word “copper” derives directly from the Latin name for the island.
They didn’t say Romans were the first the mine copper on Cyprus, they said “the word copper comes from the Latin name of the island.”
Something like this would be an excellent top level answer for OP, it’s very cool that Cyprus has had copper mining for as long as it has, but I don’t see why you chose to reply to someone in a way that could be read as a correction to something they didn’t actually say.
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u/GrazingGeese Oct 29 '24
It was one of the last remaining crusader kingdoms as a fiefdom of Lusignan.
That crusader kingdom lasted for centuries, surrounded by Muslim powers.
At the end, their end was brought by.... Venice, as they expanded their maritime empire.
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u/Analternate1234 Oct 29 '24
Leave it to the Venetians to mess up another Christian kingdom that could have been an ally
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Oct 29 '24
Where do you get extremely detailed physical map/pictures like this OP?
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u/Orioniae Oct 29 '24
Akrotiri and Dhekelia are the only British territories where the Euro is a legal tender
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u/StudioItaliano Oct 29 '24
What about Gibraltar? What's the status there?
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Oct 29 '24
Gibraltar uses GBP.
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u/OtherManner7569 Oct 29 '24
And has British shop brands, British road signs, traffic lights, a UK post code, I’ve been there walking through it feels so weird, like if Britain was in the med.
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u/Selerox Oct 29 '24
When the UK was in the EU, Gibraltar counted as part of the South West England region.
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u/C0RDE_ Oct 29 '24
The one of the shopping streets even looks similar to one of the ones in Lancaster. Similar paving and layout, and the. Of course, the exact same shops.
It was very strange, especially as other bits of it lean more Mediterranean, such as the light colour houses.
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u/OtherManner7569 Oct 29 '24
It’s a bit of a mix, some Spanish style architecture with a lot of British architecture. Noticeably the governors residence looks like it could be straight out of Britain.
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u/Affectionate_Good261 Oct 29 '24
The cat was domesticated in Cyprus 9,500 years ago.
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u/obliqueoubliette Oct 29 '24
Were they ever really domesticated, though? Sure they got used to living with humans then, but are rats domesticated?
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u/Biglatice Oct 29 '24
Historically it's thought of as more a beneficial dependency on one another. We stored large amounts of grains and seeds which attracted rats/mice. Large amount of rats/mice attract large amounts of cats. Humans keep the cats around to fend off the mice, Cats stick around the humans as they keep a nice supply of mice to eat.
It's extrememly different from the domestication of dogs (basically stolen wolf pups) and most other animals we've domesticated some of which were just passive enough to be handled from the of, others we had to do more pup snatching operations.
Soooo basically, kinda? Like we've definitely domesticated cats *since* but 9,500 years ago it's really up in the air for interpretation.
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u/Several-Zombies6547 Oct 29 '24 edited Oct 30 '24
- The financial headquarters of PornHub and YouPorn are located in Cyprus (probably because it is an EU tax haven)
- Cyprus and Greece are the only countries in the world that share the exact same national anthem
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u/Handsprime Oct 29 '24
It’s both the 3rd largest island in the Mediterranean by size, and population.
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u/barakisan Oct 29 '24
Jealousy from us Lebanese, we wish we were an Isle in the middle of the med like them, not bordering anyone
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u/RepublicansEqualScum Oct 29 '24
Ah yes, no conflict on the island which was suddenly invaded by Turkey and remains split to this day...
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u/quothe_the_maven Oct 29 '24
It has one of Europe’s best-preserved Neolithic settlements at Khirokitia.
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u/cameronpateyuk Oct 29 '24
My παππού grew up basically there
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u/ABreckenridge Oct 31 '24
Yo παππού so old he grew up in one of Europe’s best-preserved Neolithic settlements
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u/Electrical_Stage_656 Geography Enthusiast Oct 29 '24
Not quite a geography fact, but Greek mythology says the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite was born here, also it's divided in two nations, south Cyprus is Greek majority, part of the EU and north Cyprus is Turkish majority and mostly unrecognized by other nations, the border is a UN buffer zone, and is in that central plain where the capital (also divided in two) is situated
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u/y0_master Oct 29 '24
Divided in 3, actually, due to the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri & Dhekalia, which is a British Overseas Territory, with a population of almost 20k people & covering 3% of the island's land area.
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u/purple_cheese_ Oct 29 '24
Greek mythology says the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite was born here
This probably has historic origins! The Greek pantheon was for a great part derived from neighbouring deities. Aphrodite was influenced by the goddess Innana/Ishtar from Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). Innana/Ishtar's cult then spread westwards, so it's not strange that Cyprus was the first area of the Greek world to be influenced by her, as it's just over 100 km at its closest point to modern-day Syria.
In Cyprus, Innana/Ishtar then further changed into Aphrodite due to local influences (in 1000 or so BCE, religious traditions weren't unified but varied from region to region or even city to city). Aphrodite's cult then spread to the rest of the Greek world.
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u/xrhstos12lol Oct 29 '24
The occupied northern Cyprus is not mostly unrecognized by other nations. Its litetally recognized only by Turkey, the occupiers.
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u/FerricFryingPan Oct 30 '24
You mean occupied by turkey. Important distinction. Half of Cyprus is occupied
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u/WhenYoung333 Oct 29 '24
In Greece we see the Greek Cypriots as our posh cousins.
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u/cosmicosme Oct 29 '24
Interesting. What's the general opinion on Cypriots' accent/slang in Greece?
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u/WhenYoung333 Oct 29 '24
Can't speak for everyone.
Ι personally like it but sometimes confuse and can't understand what I hear. I once told some of them to talk English.
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u/ditord Oct 29 '24
When Richard the Lionheart got married, he was busy with the Crusades, so his bride came to Cyprus for the wedding. Richard then deposed the ruler of Cyprus, claiming the island for England. Richard wrapped the ruler in gold and silver chains and presented him to the new queen as a wedding gift!
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u/Kralken Oct 29 '24
It’s got fascinating geology, including an ophiolite complex which was once part of a tectonic sea floor spreading centre. The famous copper deposits are massive sulphide ores derived from this spreading centre, including black smoker type deposits.
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u/Sorge41 Oct 29 '24
Hardly any people know about the occupation of the northern part by NATO-power Turkey the and korea-like DMZ that was installed there as a buffer zone. This "border" is the only one of its kind in Europe.
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u/IchLiebeKleber Oct 29 '24
I think the division into Northern Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus is pretty well known. I remember reading about it in a geography book in my early childhood.
What isn't so well known is the existence of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, I only learned about that in adulthood.
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u/Redditauro Oct 29 '24
I knew about that, but hardly any people know about the part of Cyprus that is part of uk still nowadays. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akrotiri_and_Dhekelia
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u/Kafanska Oct 29 '24
Anybody who know anything more than the name "Cyprus" knows that it's split to Greek and Turkish area. Now sure, most won't know the details and such, but just the fact that it's split is very well known.
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u/spairni Oct 29 '24
I always knew about the invasion what I didn't know until I visited was there was turkish villages all over the island at one point then there was some lets call it unpleasantness and the random Turkish farmers were gone. or that the brits in the firght against EOKA stoked up inter communal tensions (quelle suprise)
also an independent Cyprus was the compromise to keep the Turkish Cypriots happy as EOKA wanted a union with Greece
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u/Ztarphox Oct 29 '24
King Erik I of Denmark, grandson of Svend Forkbeard, King of Denmark, Norway and England, lies buried on Cyprus, dying there in 1103 on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land. His wife the Queen, who completed the journey to Jerusalem, also died and was buried by the Mount of Olives.
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u/Alone-Struggle-8056 Oct 29 '24
My friend who lives in Australia is a partly Turkish Cypriot. After the 1979 coup, her grandmother's village was destroyed by the Greeks. She and her husband escaped and their daughter later married another Turkish man who lives in Australia.
Her grandmother knows Turkish, English as well as fluent Greek. Before the events she had to use Greek to communicate with other people because their village was one of the only Turkish villages in that region. That's a pretty interesting fact in my opinion.
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u/Rhomaios Oct 29 '24
The coup was in 1974, not 1979. Also all TCs from that era were bilingual in Cypriot Greek (not necessarily the standard variety) and Cypriot Turkish, the communities didn't leave separately prior to 1974. Many TCs from the Paphos side of Troodos (Axylou, Amargeti, Houlou etc), northwestern Paphos (Laona villages close to Akamas), and Tillyria were native speakers of Cypriot Greek and learned Turkish at school.
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u/TanktopSamurai Oct 29 '24
Also all TCs from that era were bilingual in Cypriot Greek (not necessarily the standard variety) and Cypriot Turkish, the communities didn't leave separately prior to 1974.
After the Bloody Christmas, most Turkish-Cypriot communities lived seperately from from the Greeks. Not in different states, but walled off and armed enclaves. Similar to the situation in N. Ireland during the Troubles.
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u/spairni Oct 29 '24 edited Oct 29 '24
Its independence was kind of a compromise to keep no one from fully getting their way the Greek cypriots fought the Brits but wanted a union with Greece, not independence. The Turkish Cypriots actually initially wanted the Brits to stay as they were worried it'd be a repeat of Crete. There calls for partition were a response to this fear once independence looked inevitable.
When an independent state was set up it was hoped that both sides would be mutually unhappy enough to not kick off, which of course didn't work so Greece armed on side, turkey the other and the rest is history
alos its seen 3 distinct waves of religious upheaval, the crusaders repressed the orthodox and built catholic churches, then the Ottomans came and made those churches mosques. Kind of cool to me as a catholic to see how a church was re-engineered to be a mosque
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u/COYBulls Oct 29 '24
It is one of the best examples of an ophiolite, which is a sliver of oceanic crust exposed at the surface. Exposures showing the entire ophiolite sequence (down to the mantle!) are incredibly rare, with the only better example being located in Oman.
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u/Difficult_Eggplant4u Oct 29 '24
Cyprus is home to the oldest known perfume in the world! Archaeologists discovered an ancient perfume factory near Pyrgos on the southern coast of Cyprus, dating back over 4,000 years. This factory produced perfumes from local herbs, such as coriander, bergamot, and pine, distilled with olive oil—a process similar to modern perfume-making.
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u/narvuntien Oct 29 '24
There is a three state board between, Cyrpus, North Cyrpus and the UK.
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u/TheVoiceOfEurope Oct 29 '24
- Famagusta is a ghost time where time stood still. Biologists have discovered that nature retakes abandoned cities faster than assumed.
- Before the '60, when a farmer died, the eldest son got the fertile pastures, and the daughter got the worthless piece of land at the seaside. Then tourisme came. Guess who got rich?
- Cypriot coffee is completely different than turkish coffee. Yes sireee, completely different
- Uk mass tourists are kept in reserves such as Aya Napa, so that the rest of the country can stay civilised.
- It's one of the few countries without a train line
- On the planet there are currently a few black spots where human life is simply not possible (old nuclear testing grounds, etc..). Cyprus has an old open asbestos mine. The whole valley, mine and village, is off limits.
- For an island, it has very little fishing industry, the seafloor shelves off so fast that there is very little nutrients to maintain a fishing population
- The 200km EEZ wasn't that relevant untill gas deposits were discovered recently.
- In April you can ski in the morning and swim in the sea in the afternoon.
- You will gain about 2kg per week you stay there, that's how good the food is.
- There was a football field on the Green Line where the Turkish Cypriot kids could play on even days, and the greek cypriot kids on odd days. The field is maintained by the UN. Cetinkaya football field is still UN run, but mainly used by TR-CY teams.
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u/OhHiFelicia Oct 29 '24 edited Oct 29 '24
The Cypriot flag is the only national flag with the shape of its country pictured on it.
Edit: Cyprus was the only country but Kosovo has its country on their flag too.
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u/Winterteal Oct 29 '24
Kosovo fits here too.
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u/OhHiFelicia Oct 29 '24
Thank you, TIL. This used to be my favourite flag fact but today I learned I'm old and need to brush up on my flag knowledge!
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u/Profusion-of-Celery Oct 29 '24
There was a Cold War espionage scandal at a military base there in the early 1980's, It involved gay orgies and other salacious rumors that were lapped up by the gutter press at the time. Everyone supposedly involved was acquitted.
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u/Silver-Machine-3092 Oct 29 '24
They drive on the left, as I discovered on leaving the airport car park 😳
And they used UK 3-pin power sockets (the best power sockets).
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u/Otherwise-Strain8148 Oct 29 '24
Despite hippos and elephants who used to be there, most famous animal is wild donkeys nowadays.
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u/Watership_of_a_Down Oct 29 '24 edited Oct 29 '24
The Orthodox Church of Cyprus is one of the oldest independent (Autocephalous) orthodox churches, its self-governance being granted in 431 AD, the first such granting.
Also, its the other EU member state which is a former British colony.
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u/Professor-Levant Oct 29 '24
Last divided capital in Europe. Earliest evidence of perfume manufacture. Earliest evidence of cat domestication.
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u/Alfie-M0013 Oct 30 '24
It's the birthplace of Lady Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty, femininity, and female sexuality.
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u/amrbinhishamgrandson Oct 30 '24
The island is close to 3 continent at the same time. Thats why it holds very stratical position for military airforces.
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u/gnomeplanet Oct 29 '24
Contains nearly the last remnants of the British Empire.
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u/Redditauro Oct 29 '24
I thought that London contains nearly the last remnants of the British Empire. Which makes sense considering that London contains the last remnants of a lot of empires
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Oct 29 '24
There is an abandoned city called Famagusta. Everyone just up and left when the Turks invaded. Food still in the fridge etc, washing on the line
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u/TheManFromNeverNever Oct 29 '24
There are plenty of hills, and the must go place to be if you are insane in the membrane.
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u/Bloodbathandbeyon Oct 29 '24
According to some contemporary scholars the Hala Sultan Tekke mosque ( on the shores of Larnaca salt lake) is the third holiest mosque in the Islamic world.
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u/surfkaboom Oct 29 '24
Not geographical, but the Pan Am 103 forensic investigation led to a small tailor in Cyprus by identifying a small scrap of a clothing tag.
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u/WorstHumanWhoExisted Oct 29 '24
Apostle Paul visiting Cyprus I think is cool and seeing the evidence in the structures still there.
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u/Favlos_Kyklos Oct 29 '24
It is the only civilized country where 37% of its territory is under military occupation by a terrorist state
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u/lottaKivaari Oct 29 '24
There's a resort town that was the height of luxury in the 70s that was abandoned overnight and remains abandoned today. I mean like brand new cars still parked at the dealership abandoned overnight during the Turkish invasion. Nobody can go there except Turkish military personnel, but the few modern pictures we have are very eerie and cool.
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u/PckMan Oct 30 '24
The DMZ, which cuts across the island and varies in width, has many parts that are virtually untouched ever since the invasion, including formerly urban areas that are essentially frozen in time.
Also Akrotiri base is a playable area in the Metal Gear Solid V intro.
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u/Caleb914 Oct 30 '24
It is a piece of ocean crust which was thrust upwards by the collision of the African and Eurasian continental plates. In other words the island is a big Ophiolite, which is part of the reason it was a major source of copper for Copper and Bronze Age societies.
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u/SeriouzReviewer Oct 30 '24
Water is scarce in the island. There is a fresh water pipeline from Turkey to Turkish side of the island.
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u/RandyClaggett Oct 31 '24
The only EU country with a significant part of it's territory not under it's control.
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u/Joseph20102011 Geography Enthusiast Oct 29 '24
It is the only EU nation-state member with a full-blown presidential form of government.