Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Up with Geography: Cyprus

Country Name:
Cyprus

Capital:
Nicosia

Continent:
None - it's an island in the Mediterranean Sea; closest continent is Asia.

Map:
A close-up of Cyprus. I chose not to include the UN Buffer
Zone that divides Turkish Cyprus in the north from Greek
Cyprus in the south.

Neighbors:
The nearest neighbors are Turkey to the north, Syria to the east, and Lebanon to the southeast.

Water Border:
Mediterranean Sea

Total Area:
3,572 square miles

Five Largest Cities:
Limassol, Strovolos, Nicosia, Larnaca, Lakatamia

Famous Geographical Point:
Troodos Mountains

Famous Person:
İsmet Vehit Güney, artist, teacher, & creator of the Cypriot flag

Book Set In/About:
The People in Between: A Cyprus Odyssey by Gregory S. Lamb

To connect with the heritage she barely knows, a woman travels to Cyprus, where she learns about her family's history & the conflicts that have plagued the country for decades.

Movie Set In/About:
"Akamas" (2006), directed by Panikos Chrissanthou

Spanning two decades of Cypriot history (1950s-1970s), it's the tale of a Greek (Christian) Cypriot and a Turkish (Muslim) Cypriot who fall in love and get married, facing opposition at every turn. The Cypriot government banned this film from being shown in Cyprus.

Headline of the Day:
"Cyprus Reunification Talks Restart, Tough Challenges Ahead" in The Seattle Times.

2 comments:

Patricia said...

Ah Cyprus, a country which I'm often not sure is a country or a city.

Is this the last C country? Must be, right? I'm excited to see what the first D country is. (She says, ignoring the existence of the informative internet.)

balyien said...

There is one more C country! I'll let you be surprised. ;)

I'm looking forward to moving on. C hasn't been the largest category to date (B was, at 17 countries), but D only has five countries so it'll be nice to have a short category.