For then thousand years, Cyprus has been melting pot of great civilizations.
From the Neolithic settlements on the Northern Coast to the Egyptian, Persian, Roman, Venetian, Ottoman and British Empires, its strategic location at the crossroads of East and West has bestowed the island with a rich and colourful history spanning centuries.

During the course of its vibrant past, Cyprus has been visited by the Romans, Alexander the Great and Richard the Lion Heart, to name a few, each living their own unique footprint behind. 
Cyprus was first settled in Neolithic times, a fascinating array of artefacts discovered in cave dwellings dating from 7000 B.C. can be found in the museums of Cyprus.

From 3000 to 700 B.C., Cyprus began to emerge as a trading centre, with copper mines drawing merchants from all across the Mediterranean. Attracted to the growing opportunities, settlers arrived from Turkish Anatolia and from Syria, bringing new Phoenicians Levantine architecture, ceramics and metal working to Cyprus.

In the 6th Century B.C., the Persians adopted Cyprus as a base for their wars with Greece until 333 B.C., when Alexander the Great brought the Persian Empire to a sudden end. Rule by the Ptolemy’s of Egypt lasted for 250 years, until Rome annexed Cyprus for several years, after which Julius Caesar gave Cyprus back to his lover, Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemy’s, in 46 BC. Only upon her death was Emperor Augustus finally able to add Cyprus to the lands of the Roman Empire.

Between the 1st and 10th Centuries, multiple communities continued to emerge in Cyprus, with Muslim and Byzantine settlers co-existing in relative harmony. However, all this came to a halt in 965 AD, when Byzantines took full control in Cyprus upon defeating the Muslim Caliphate’s Egyptian fleet. Cyprus' precarious geological position again asserted itself in 332 and 365 when violent earthquakes destroyed many of the towns.

Byzantine rule lasted until the 12th Century, when Kin Richard the Lionheart defeated the prince and handed Cyprus over to a member of the French medieval royalty, Guy de Lusignan, to finance his expeditions. The Lusignans inhabited Cyprus for 300 years, from the 12th Century until 1489, when the Venetians captured the island and its imagination with the impressive Kyrenia Castle, as well as the celebrated architecture of Famagusta and Nicosia, which are all well worth a visit.

The Ottoman period in Cyprus began in 1571 and lasted for more than three centuries, during which time the two Cypriot communities, Turkish and Greek, began to emerge. It was during this time that the British were granted the right to govern Cyprus for the Sultan in an agreement dating back to 1878 which lasted until the end of the First World War.