Life and Culture

Cyprus

ABOUT CYPRUS

  • Cyprus is the largest island in the eastern Mediterranean and is situated south of Turkey.
  • Cyprus has long been a crossing point between Europe, Asia and Africa and still has many traces of successive civilisations – Roman theatres and villas, Byzantine churches and monasteries, Crusader castles and pre-historic habitats.
  • The island’s main economic activities are tourism, clothing and craft exports and merchant shipping. Traditional crafts include embroidery, pottery and copperwork.

LANGUAGES

  • Greek and Turkish are the main languages spoken by the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities respectively.
  • English is widely spoken.
  • French and German are also well spoken within the tourist industry.

RELIGION

  • Cyprus enjoys an exceedingly high level of freedom of worship.
  • While the majority of Greek-Cypriots are Greek-Orthodox Christians, other denominations are represented on the island, including Armenians, Maronites and Roman Catholics.
  • The Turkish-Cypriot community is predominantly Muslim.