Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea after Sicily and Sardinia. Cyprus is located in the eastern part of the Mediterranean, south of the Anatolian peninsular in Turkey. The coastal regions of Cyprus are rocky in the north and sandy to the south.
The Cyprus natural environment is made impressive by the Troodos Mountains that overshadow the southwest regions to form a coastal plain. The Troodos Mountains are actually a large elevated section of rocks. Towards the north, you will find the Kyrenia Range. Cyprus is more or less completely covered with brute pine, Cyprus golden oak, junipers, cypress, cedar, and wild olive trees.
Cyprus natural environment features wet winters and dry summers. The average temperature is approximately 20 Celsius. Due to perpetual sunshine throughout the year, the island of Cyprus is a popular tourist destination. During the summer there is almost 12 hours of sunlight while even in the cloudy winter days it is quite normal to get about 6 hours or sunlight every day.
Botanically speaking, the Cyprus natural environment is a veritable heritage of antiquity. It has already been remarked by several botanists that Cyprus is densely forested in antiquated plant life and a lot of these continue to survive even today.
More than 17% of Cyprus is woodland. There are over 1800 species of flowering plants on the island and out of this, 8% are found nowhere else in the world. Cyprus is as big a paradise for botanists as it is for tourists looking for sunshine. While there are many animal species on Cyprus it is believed that before man arrived here, the only animals were elephants and hippopotami that are evidenced to have swum to Cyprus in the days when man did not inhabit it.
The Cyprus natural environment features 365 birds out of which 115 breed inland. There are 25 species of mammals and 26 amphibian and reptilian species. Besides, there are 16 species of butterfly and 197 fish species that have been documented. The largest land animal found here is the moufflon, a rare species of mountain goat that is found only in Cyprus. The species was on the brink of extinction before it was saved by getting itself declared as endangered. Today the population has been brought back to a healthy 2000. This is the face that you will see on the coins of the Republic of Cyprus.
In addition, Cyprus natural environment is a also an important pit stop for a great number of migrating bird species that travel between Europe and Africa.
Cyprus Natural Environment