
Cyprus has been constantly a significant trading post between Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and throughout history someone has always wanted to take it from someone else. First the Mycenaeans grabbed it, then the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Assyrians and Persians. Alexander the Greattook it off them, then Ptolemy snatched it from him.

The cultural heritage of Cyprus goes back more than 9000 years. Of course, today the situation in Cyprus brings with it that most of everybody's attention go to the events of the last 20 years rather than to those of several millennia ago. The north of the island is the Turkish part.