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CYPRUS
a major tourist centre
The mild climate during the whole year, the clear agreeable seas, the unspoilt coastline and the natural environment of the country coupled with its rich cultural heritage and the hospitality of its people have established Cyprus as a major tourist destination.
The island has been called an open museum by visitors and students of history due to its richness of relics and monuments from all ages of history. Cyprus has been in the focus of interest of visitors, seafarers and colonist traders since the dawn of history and cradle of trade and culture of the mediterranean antiquity. In Cyprus there are signs of organized social life dating back to the 8th millennium B.C. while in the years that followed, civilizations and cultures from nearby and even more distant centers passed through the island leaving behind their marks in monuments and relics.
Parallel to the wealth of signs from antiquity the island has all the qualities of a highly advanced modern country, comparing favorably with areas around it and complying with modern esthetic and technological criteria. The old and new are side by side, in an amicable combination of ancient sites with modern hotel and catering establishments leaving nothing to be desired by the visitor and vacationer.
The main feature of the qualities of Cyprus which has established the island among the major tourist centers is the hospitality of its people. Their open heart to visitors
and the readiness to go to ends in helping them has given to Cyprus the characteristic of the country of hospitality which has been trade marked by Shakespeare in Othello, the drama which takes place in Cyprus and in which the visitor is received with the phrase «You are Welcome Sir in Cyprus». References to Cyprus and its hospitable character date back to ancient times with accounts about it by the Greek writers Homer and Euripides and the Roman historian Strabo.
Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean after Sicily and Sardenia. It is situated in the eastern Mediterranean at the crossroads of three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa, with a coastline of 1364 km interspersed with long sandy beaches and small unspoilt coves.
The terrain o ers a varied and never tiring surroundings with a central plain among the two main mountain ranges which with their high peaks and pleasant forested valleys covered by a big variety of vegetation complement the lowlands and the sandy coastal areas.
Cyprus has a population of 860,000 of whom 660,000 are Greek Cypriots, 110,200 Turkish Cypriots and other minorities. Greek is the main language of the Greek Cypriot population and Turkish of the Turkish Cypriots. English is widely spoken while other European languages are also used mostly in hotels, many shops and catering establishments.
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