Editing Geography of Cyprus (section)

==Terrain==
[[File:Geology of Cyprus-SkiriotissaMine.jpg|thumb|left|[[Skouriotissa]] mine]]
[[File:CyprusFromTheISS(cropped).jpg|thumb|This image, photographed from the [[International Space Station]] in 2013, shows the three distinct geologic regions of the island. In the central and western part of the island is the Troodos Massif, a mountain range whose surface layer is mostly basaltic lava rock, and whose maximum elevation is {{convert|1952|m|ft|0|abbr=on}}. Running in a thin arc along the northeast margin of the island is Cyprus's second mountain range, a limestone formation called the Kyrenia Range. The space between these ranges is home to the capital [[Nicosia]], visible as a grayish-brown patch near the image's centre.]]
[[File:Cyprus topo.png|thumb|Topography]]
[[File:Cyprus2022OSM.png|thumb|Detailed map of Cyprus]]
The rugged [[Troodos Mountains]], whose principal range stretches from Pomos Point in the northwest almost to Larnaca Bay on the east, are the single most conspicuous feature of the landscape.<ref name=":0" /> Intensive uplifting and folding in the formative period left the area highly fragmented, so that subordinate ranges and spurs veer off at many angles, their slopes incised by steep-sided valleys.<ref name=":0" /> In the southwest, the mountains descend in a series of stepped foothills to the coastal plain.<ref name=":0" />

While the Troodos Mountains are a massif formed of molten [[igneous rock]], the [[Kyrenia Range]] is a narrow [[limestone]] ridge that rises suddenly from the plains.<ref name=":0" /> Its easternmost extension becomes a series of foothills on the [[Karpas Peninsula]].<ref name=":0" /> That peninsula points toward Asia Minor, to which Cyprus belongs geologically.<ref name=":0" /> The Kyrenia Range is also known as the Pentadactylon Mountains, due to a summit resembling five fingers.

Even the highest peaks of the Kyrenia Range are hardly more than half the height of the great dome of the Troodos massif, [[Mount Olympus (Cyprus)|Mount Olympus]] ({{convert|1952|m|ft|0|abbr=on|disp=or}}),<ref name="Embassy climate">{{cite web|title = Country Profile: Climate|publisher = Official Website of the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Washington D.C.|url = http://www.cyprusembassy.net/home/index.php?module=page&pid=11|access-date = 2006-10-11|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120205213337/http://www.cyprusembassy.net/home/index.php?module=page&pid=11|archive-date = 2012-02-05|url-status = dead}}</ref> but their seemingly inaccessible, jagged slopes make them considerably more spectacular.<ref name=":0" /> [[United Kingdom|British]] writer [[Lawrence Durrell]], in [[Bitter Lemons]], wrote of the Troodos as "an unlovely jumble of crags and heavyweight rocks" and of the Kyrenia Range as belonging to "the world of [[Gothic art|Gothic]] [[Europe]], its lofty crags studded with crusader castles."<ref name=":0" />

Rich copper deposits were discovered in antiquity on the slopes of the Troodos.<ref name=":0" /> The massive sulphide deposits formed as a part of an [[ophiolite]] complex at a [[Mid-ocean ridge|spreading centre]] under the Mediterranean Sea which was [[Tectonics|tectonically]] uplifted during the [[Pleistocene]] and emplaced in its current location.<ref>http://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/gsd/gsd.nsf/dmlTroodos_en/dmlTroodos_en?OpenDocument {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118103052/http://www.moa.gov.cy/moa/gsd/gsd.nsf/dmlTroodos_en/dmlTroodos_en?OpenDocument |date=2017-01-18 }} Cyprus Geologic Survey</ref>