Useful Information > Cyprus Information
CYPRUS - the Island of Aphrodite, an island of amazing diversity where majestic peaks meet the crystal turquoise waters of the Mediterranean Sea, where ancient history and culture live side by side with all the amenities that come with modern living. It is a nature lovers paradise, with many species of flora and fauna for you to observe including the rare and shy Moufflon, a type of mountain sheep indigenous to Cyprus, many varieties of orchid, pink flamingos and other beautiful plants and animals.
Cyprus offers travelers much more with its enviable mild climate, superb gastronomic pleasures and specialized activities. It offers a multi-dimensional holiday experience because visitors will come across a unique blend of overwhelming history and culture in magnificent settings amongst a genuinely hospitable people. Most importantly, at a time when holidays are ’overcasted’ by safety precautions, the warm feeling of security prevails all over Cyprus.
Cyprus has a long history of pre-historic development, followed by successive periods of Classical and Hellenistic Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, Turkish and British occupation and now independence. This history of changing civilizations has left a rich heritage of archaeological and historic sites and a local architectural style which can be found in its many tranquil monasteries and picturesque villages.
Cyprus excels in offering ravishing high standard hotels and resorts. Apart from a rich choice of leisure facilities, most hotels cater for the business traveler, offering sophisticated and professional conference facilities.
Cyprus has an intense Mediterranean climate with the typical seasonal rhythms strongly marked in respect of temperature, rainfall and weather generally. Hot, dry summers from mid-May to mid-September and rainy, rather changeable winters from mid-November to mid-March are separated by short autumn and spring seasons of rapid change in weather conditions.
The predominantly clear skies and extensive sunshine give large seasonal and daily differences between temperatures of the sea and the interior of the island which also cause considerable local effects especially near the coast.
In summer the island is mainly under the influence of a shallow trough of low pressure extending from the great continental depression centered over southwest Asia. It is a season of high temperatures with almost cloudless skies. Rainfall is negligible but isolated thunderstorms sometimes occur giving rainfall amounting to less than 5% of the total in the average year.
In winter, Cyprus is near the track of fairly frequent small depressions which give periods of disturbed weather usually lasting for a day or so and produce most of the annual precipitation, the average amount from December to February being nearly two thirds of the years total.
Sunshine
All parts of Cyprus enjoy a very sunny climate. In the central plain and eastern lowlands the average number of hours of bright sunshine for the whole year is 75% of the time that the sun is above the horizon. Over the whole six summer months there is an average of 11.5 hours of bright sunshine per day whilst in winter this is reduced only to 5.5 hours in the cloudiest months, December and January.
Even on the high mountains the cloudiest winter months have an average of nearly 4 hours of bright sunshine per day and in June and July the figure reaches 11 hours.
