Cyprus is the crossroads of the Mediterranean. In all the days leading up to the trip, we would always say Cyprus connected Europe, Asia, and Africa. Today I finally learned why that was.

I was fortunate to experience two history lessons in Cyprus; a walking tour and a classroom. Both were necessary as Cyprus has a long, rich history starting in 5000 BC. Every empire in ancient history stuck there hand into Cyprus. From the Persians to the English, a force always occupied the island. But for some reason, the Greek culture stuck with the Cypriots. I don’t understand why this is, but I will hopefully learn during the trip. Whatever the reasons were, the Cypriots were proud of their Greek heritage. While diplomatically, the Republic of Cyprus must stay friendly with Turkey; there has been growing hostility towards Turkey as the country continues to send Turkish people to live in Cyprus. This being said the original Turkish Cypriots from the Ottoman Empire are well respected by the Greek Cypriots, and one Turkish Cypriot even has a seat in the European Union. Still, it is fascinating that the country of Cyprus is divided purely on a political stance, even while the two sides are divided religiously. Tomorrow we get to travel to the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, and I hope I can get the perspective of one of the Turkish Cypriots on the divide.

Another part of the culture that stood out to me was the architecture. While sadly, our tour guide had to go quickly for this topic because we were low on time, I could tell she was passionate about it. A side effect of having been occupied by many empires is your architecture will represent those periods. In the lecture at Nicosia, we saw beautiful Greek ruins, and we got to pass by Roman ruins on the way back. We also visited a Greek Orthodox Church and a Mosque, an almost chilling reminder of the separation between the two religions. Our tour guide did emphasize the unfortunate rise of modernization in Limassol. The government has seen the opportunity for growth in the tourism sector, leading to the construction of expensive restaurants and large hotels. Our tour guides pointed out locations where traditional and modern architecture contrasted with each other, and it was saddening. In a culture that values its past so intensely, the almost inevitable rise of tourism has torn down this history.