CVPRIS 



CYPRUS 



841 



fuaca and C. pubera, reproduce parthenogeni- 

 cully in summer anil autumn, the males being rare 

 iui'1 transient ; while in others e.g. 6*. ovum, the 

 males are found throughout the year, and partheno- 

 genesis seems not to <ccur. The eggs are usually 

 laid in masses on stones and water-plants ; in C. 

 pubera the egg remains as such throughout the 

 winter. The males are remarkable for a |>eculiarly 

 long and complex syringe-like modification of the 

 (productive duct. The adults are said to be able 

 to survive desiccation, and this is certainly true of 

 t lie <>ggs. Some spefeies are very abundant as fossils 

 in fresh-water strata e.g. C. waldensis, in the 

 English Wealden. See CRUSTACEA. 



Cyprus (Gr. Kupros, Turk. G'br's, Fr. Chypre, 

 It;il. <'i/>ro) is situated in the north-east or the 

 eastern basin of the Mediterranean, S. of Asia 

 Minor, and \V. of Syria, between 34 30' and 35 41' 

 N. lat., and 32 15' and 34 36' E. long. The dis- 

 tance from Cape St Andreas, the north-easternmost 

 point of the island, to the mainland of Syria near 

 Latakia is about 52 geographical miles, while Cape 

 Kormakiti on the north of the island is omy 35 

 miles from Cape Anamur in Cilicia. Larnaca is 

 nearly 1000 miles east of Malta, and little over 

 200 from Port Said and the entrance to the Suez 

 Canal, while Limassol is somewhat nearer to both. 

 The familiar shape of the island was likened by the 

 ancient Greeks to that of a deer's skin, of which the 

 long and narrow peninsula of Carpas represented 

 the tail. The extreme length is alx>ut 140 miles, 

 of which 40 consist of this Carpas peninsula ; the 

 extreme breadth is 60 miles ; and the area is 3707 

 sq. m., or a little larger than Norfolk and Suffolk 

 together. There are two principal ranges of 

 mountains which form the most remarkable 

 natural feature of the country. The northern 

 range extends from Cape St Andreas, at the 

 extreme east of the island, almost as far as 

 Cape Kormakiti, some 20 miles to the west of 

 Kyrenia. The highest mountains of this range, 

 Buffavento (3240 feet), St Hilarion (3340), and 

 Pentedaktylon (2480), are situated almost immedi- 

 ately north of Nicosia, and appear, owing to the 

 extreme clearness of the atmosphere, to rise almost 

 from the outskirts of the town, from which they are 

 distant fully 12 miles. To the south of this range, 

 and extending from Salamis to Morfu Bay, is the 

 great Messaorian plain, once famous for its crops of 

 cereals. Of late years, owing to the abandonment 

 of irrigation-works, the decay of wells, and the 

 absence of any system of water storage, its fertility 

 has greatly fallen off, and in 1887, owing to a 

 deficient rainfall, there was a scarcity almost 

 amounting to famine. The western range occupies 

 the greater part of the western and south-western 

 districts of Cyprus, and extends to the east as far as 

 the isolated peak of Santa Croce or Stavrovouni, 

 only 12 miles to the west of Larnaca. The highest 

 mountain of this range is Mount Trottdos (6352 

 feet), of which one of the peaks bears the classic 

 name of Olympus. 



On the slopes of Trofidos, under gigantic pine- 

 trees, is pitched the camp where troops from 

 Limassol spend a part of the summer months under 

 canvas, and where the brigade of guards recruited 

 their strength in the autumn of 1885 after their 

 sufferings in Egypt. Cyprus has practically no 

 harbours ; Larnaca and Limassol, the chief seaport 

 towns, are open roadsteads, unprotected against all 

 but northerly winds, with such shallow water that 

 steamers are obliged to anchor at a considerable 

 distance from the shore. Moreover, a dangerous 

 surf is raised in stormy weather which renders 

 landing difficult. At Kyrenia there is a little 

 harbour fit only for small craft, and unprotected in 

 northerly winds ; and in days gone by there were 

 harbours at Salamis, at Papho, and Famagusta. 



The restoration of the last would greatly increase 

 the strategic value as well as the commercial 

 importance of Cyprus, but HO far nothing lias been 

 done. 



The rivers only flow after heavy rain or the 

 melting of the snow in the hills. There are no 

 lakes of any importance save that of Paralimni near 

 Famagusta, which is noteworthy chiefly on account 

 of the fact that whereas it becomes entirely dry in 

 summer, it abounds in fish during the winter, a 

 phenomenon which has never been explained, but 

 which certainly cannot be called in question. The 

 chief towns are Nicosia ( the capital ), Larnaca, and 

 Limassol. Famagusta is a ruin ; Papho, a site ; 

 Kyrenia and Morfu, villages on the northern coast. 

 Until 1885 the topography of Cyprus was by no 

 means accurately known, a state of things now put 

 an end to by trie issue of the great map of the 

 trigonometrical survey of the island. This map, 

 which was published in 1885, has been engraved 

 by Messrs Stanford on a scale of one inch to the 

 statute mile. 



A census taken by order of government in 1891 

 showed the population to be 209,291, of whom 

 161,247 profess the Orthodox or Greek religion, and 

 48,044 the Mohammedan. Dividing the popula- 

 tion according to language, 140,000 speak as their 

 mother-tongue a form or the Romaic or modern 

 Greek, and 46,000 the Turkish. The Cypriot 

 Greek dialect is a poor as well as a corrupt idiom, 

 neither expressive nor harmonious. The language 

 of the Cypriot Moslems, on the contrary, is re- 

 markably pure, and is said to be the best Turkish 

 spoken out of Stamboul. 



History. Cyprus was colonised at a very early 

 period by the Phoenicians and subsequently'by the 

 Greeks, who gave to the island the name Kupros, 

 and substituted the worship of Aphrodite (the 

 Cyprian goddess, ' Paphian Venus ), to whom 

 Cyprus was considered sacred, for that of the 

 Phojnician Ashtaroth or Astarte. The ancient 

 Cypriote syllabary was derived, according to Sayce, 

 from the writing of the Hittites (q.v.). Early in 

 the 6th century B.C. Cyprus was conquered by the 

 Egyptian king Amasis ; and a little later by Cam- 

 byses, who annexed it to Persia, 525 B.C. After the 

 battle of Issus, Cyprus became a part of the Mace- 

 donian empire, but on the death of Alexander it 

 passed into the possession of the Egyptian Ptolemy. 

 In 58 B.C. Cyprus became a Roman province, and 

 was administered by Cato the Younger and Cicero. 

 The Cypriotes were one of the first Gentile peoples 

 to embrace Christianity, and Cyprus was visited not 

 only by St Paul but by many saints of the early 

 church. At the division of the empire Cyprus 

 naturally passed into the hands of the Eastern or 

 Byzantine emperors, to whom it continued subject 

 for over seven hundred years. In consequence of 

 the supposed discovery by a shepherd of the body 

 of St Matthew and part of his gospel near Salamis, 

 in the 4th century, Cyprus was constituted by the 

 empire a separate autonomous church, and to the 

 arcnbishop was accorded the privilege, enjoyed only 

 by the emperor himself, of signing his name in red 

 ink, a privilege which has been uninterruptedly 

 exercised to the present day. In 646 Cyprus was 

 taken by the Saracens, under Othman, and again 

 in 802 by Haroun al Rash id ; but on each occasion 

 it remained but a very short period under the sway 

 of the Moslem. In 1195 Richard I., on his way to 

 Syria for the third crusade, took the island from 

 Isaac Comnenus, the representative or duke of the 

 eastern emperor, and gave it to Guy de Lusignan, 

 king of Jerusalem, in whose family the sovereignty 

 of the island remained until 1487, when it passed 

 under the dominion of the republic of Venice. In 

 1570 the Turks under Selim II. invaded Cyprus, 

 and after long sieges and terrible massacres at 



