Independence day of the Republic of Cyprus

Cyprus, Greek Kípros, Turkish Kıbrıs, an island in the eastern Mediterranean Sea renowned since ancient times for its mineral wealth, superb wines and produce, and natural beauty. A “golden-green leaf thrown into the Sea” and a land of “wild weather and volcanoes,” in the words of the Greek Cypriot poet Leonidas Malenis, Cyprus comprises tall mountains, fertile valleys, and wide beaches. Settled for more than 10 millennia, Cyprus stands at a cultural, linguistic, and historic crossroads between Europe and Asia. Its chief cities—the capital of Nicosia, Limassol, Famagusta, and Paphos—have absorbed the influences of generations of conquerors, pilgrims, and travelers and have an air that is both cosmopolitan and provincial. Today Cyprus is a popular tourist destination for visitors from Europe, favoured by honeymooners (as befits the legendary home of Aphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love), bird-watchers drawn by the island’s diversity of migratory species, and other vacationers.In 1960 Cyprus became independent of Britain (it had been a crown colony since 1925) as the Republic of Cyprus. The long-standing conflict between the Greek Cypriot majority and the Turkish Cypriot minority and an invasion of the island by Turkish troops in 1974 produced an actual—although internationally unrecognized—partition of the island and led to the establishment in 1975 of a de facto Turkish Cypriot state in the northern third of the country. The Turkish Cypriot state made a unilateral declaration of independence in 1983 and adopted the name Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Its independence was recognized only by Turkey. Land Cyprus lies about 40 miles (65 km) south of Turkey, 60 miles (100 km) west of Syria, and 480 miles (770 km) southeast of mainland Greece. Its maximum length, from Cape Arnauti in the west to Cape Apostolos Andreas at the end of the northeastern peninsula, is 140 miles (225 km); the maximum north-south extent is 60 miles (100 km). It is the third largest Mediterranean island, after Sicily and Sardinia. Relief The rugged island of Cyprus resembles a saucepan, with the handle extending northeastward from the main part. The general pattern of its roughly 400-mile (640-km) coastline is indented and rocky, with long, sandy beaches. The Kyrenia Mountains—the western portion of which is also known as the Pentadaktylos for its five-fingered peak—extend for 100 miles (160 km) parallel to and just inland from the northern coast. It is the southernmost range of the great Alpine-Himalayan chain in the eastern Mediterranean; like much of that extensive mountain belt, it is formed largely of deformed masses of Mesozoic limestone. The Troodos Mountains in the south and southwest are of great interest to geologists, who have concluded that the range, made up of igneous rock, was formed from molten rock beneath the deep ocean (Tethys) that once separated the continents of Eurasia and Afro-Arabia. The range stretches eastward about 50 miles (80 km) from near the island’s west coast to the 2,260-foot (689-metre) Stavrovouni peak, about 12 miles (19 km) from the southeastern coast. The range’s summit, Mount Olympus (also called Mount Troodos), reaches an elevation of 6,401 feet (1,951 metres) and is the island’s highest point. Between the two ranges lies the Mesaoria Plain (its name means “Between the Mountains”), which is flat and low-lying and extends from Morphou Bay in the west to Famagusta Bay in the east. Roughly in the centre of the plain is Nicosia. The plain is the principal cereal-growing area in the island. Drainage and soils The major rivers in Cyprus originate in the Troodos Mountains. The Pedieos, which is the largest, flows eastward toward Famagusta Bay; the Serakhis flows northwestward and the Karyotis northward to Morphou Bay; and the Kouris flows southward to Episkopi Bay. The rivers are fed entirely from the runoff of winter precipitation; in summer they become dry courses. The island’s major soil types consist of imperfect, gravelly lithosols found in the Troodos and Kyrenia mountains and agriculturally productive vertisols located in the Mesaoria Plain and along the southeastern coast. Other, less-productive soils include solonchaks and solonetz soils. These latter are found only in isolated saline pockets throughout the island. Climate Cyprus has an intense Mediterranean climate, with a typically strongly marked seasonal rhythm. Hot, dry summers (June to September) and rainy winters (November to March) are separated by short autumn and spring seasons (October and April to May, respectively) of rapid change. Autumn and winter precipitation, on which agriculture and water supply depend, is variable. Average annual precipitation is about 20 inches (500 mm). The lowest average precipitation of 14 inches (350 mm) occurs at Nicosia, and the highest, 41 inches (1,050 mm), is on Mount Olympus. Summer temperatures in Nicosia range between an average daily maximum of 98 °F (37 °C) and an average daily minimum of 70 °F (21 °C); in winter the range is between 59 °F (15 °C) and 41 °F (5 °C). From December to March the Troodos range experiences several weeks of below-freezing night temperatures, and snowfall is considerable. Plant and animal life There is a narrow fertile plain along the northern coast, where the vegetation is largely evergreen and includes olive, carob, and citrus trees. The Troodos range has pine, dwarf oak, cypress, and cedar forest coverings. The southern and western slopes are extensively planted with vineyards. Between autumn and spring the Mesaoria Plain is green and colourful, with an abundance of wildflowers, flowering bushes, and shrubs; there are also patches of woodland in which eucalyptus and various types of acacia, cypress, and lowland pine are found. Orange plantations dot the island’s northwestern end in the area around Morphou. Fossil remains of elephants and hippopotamuses have been found in the Kyrenia area, and in ancient times there were large numbers of deer and boar. The only large wild animal now surviving is the agrino, a subspecies of wild sheep related to the mouflon of the western Mediterranean; it is under strict protection in a small forested area of the Troodos range. Small game is abundant but keenly hunted. Snakes were widespread in ancient times, giving the island the name Ophiussa, “the Abode of Snakes”; they are now relatively rare. Green and loggerhead turtles, which are protected by law, breed on the beaches along the coast. Cyprus lies on major migration routes for birds. In spring and autumn millions pass over the island, while many species winter there. Among the numerous resident species are francolin and chukar partridges. People of Cyprus - Ethnic groups and languages The people of Cyprus represent two main ethnic groups, Greek and Turkish. The Greek Cypriots, who constitute nearly four-fifths of the population, descended from a mixture of aboriginal inhabitants and immigrants from the Peloponnese who colonized Cyprus starting about 1200 bc and assimilated subsequent settlers up to the 16th century. Roughly one-fifth of the population are Turkish Cypriots, descendants of the soldiers of the Ottoman army that conquered the island in 1571 and of immigrants from Anatolia brought in by the sultan’s government. Since 1974 additional immigrants from Turkey have been brought in to work vacant land and increase the total labour force. The language of the majority is Greek and of the minority, Turkish. There are also a small number of Arabic-speaking Maronite Christians, as well as a small group who speak Armenian. These groups each total only a few thousand speakers, and they are mostly bilingual, with either Turkish or Greek their second language. English is widely spoken and understood. Illiteracy is extremely low, the result of an excellent educational system. More: Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Cyprus  

2022/10/01

INTRODUCTION TO BELIZE

A revamp of Belize Tourism Board's(BTB) "Be One With Belize" video. Special Thanks to Minister of Tourism, Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr. for allowing us to borrow some clips in an effort to market Belize and all its natural, wonder to the world.

2022/09/30

The 153rd birth anniversary of #MahatmaGandhi

To commemorate the 153rd birth anniversary of #MahatmaGandhi a talk by Dr. Shobhana Radhakrishna, Gandhian scholar on Mahatma Gandhi’s Global Leadership for Peace, Non-violence & Satyagraha will be live-streamed by the Embassy of India, Warsaw in collaboration with the Indian Council For Cultural Relations Tune in to our Facebook page on 2 October 2022 at 1100 hrs.

2022/09/30

Independence day of the Republic of Botswana

Botswana, country in the centre of Southern Africa. The territory is roughly triangular—approximately 600 miles (965 km) from north to south and 600 miles from east to west—with its eastern side protruding into a sharp point. Its eastern and southern borders are marked by river courses and an old wagon road; its western borders are lines of longitude and latitude through the Kalahari, and its northern borders combine straight lines with a river course. Within the confines of Botswana’s borders is a rich variety of wildlife, including many species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Before its independence in 1966, Botswana was a British protectorate known as Bechuanaland. It was also one of the poorest and least-developed states in the world. The country is named after its dominant ethnic group, the Tswana (“Bechuana” in older variant orthography). Since its independence the Republic of Botswana has gained international stature as a peaceful and increasingly prosperous democratic state. It is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the African Union (AU), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The secretariat of SADC is housed in the capital of Botswana, Gaborone (until 1969 spelled Gaberones—i.e., Gaborone’s town, after the tribal chief who had his capital at the site during the colonial period). Land Botswana is bounded by Namibia to the west and north (the Caprivi Strip), Zambia and Zimbabwe to the northeast, and South Africa to the southeast and south. The Zambezi River border with Zambia is only several hundred yards long. The border along the main channel of the Chobe River up to the Zambezi was disputed with Namibia until a 1999 ruling by the International Court of Justice favoured Botswana. The point at which the borders of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe meet in the middle of the river has never been precisely determined. Relief Botswana extends from the Chobe River (which drains through the Zambezi to the Indian Ocean) in the north to the Molopo River (part of the Orange River system, which flows into the Atlantic) in the south. To the east it is bordered by the Limpopo River and its tributaries, the Ngotwane (Notwani), Marico (Madikwe), and Shashe. The country has a mean altitude of 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) and consists largely of a sand-filled basin, with gently undulating plains rising to highlands in neighbouring countries. The highest point is 4,888 feet (1,490 metres) in the hills north of Lobatse in southeastern Botswana; the lowest point is 2,170 feet (660 metres) at the country’s easternmost point, in the Limpopo valley. The country is divided into three main environmental regions. The hardveld region consists of rocky hill ranges and areas of shallow sand cover in eastern Botswana. The sandveld region is the area of deep Kalahari sand covering the rest of the country. The third region consists of ancient lake beds superimposed on the northern sandveld in the lowest part of the Kalahari Basin. Geologic exploration has been limited by the depth and extent of Kalahari sand covering the surface geology. The rock groups underlying most of the sandveld are therefore the least-known but appear to be the youngest, belonging to the Karoo (Karroo) System, formed 290 to 208 million years ago. Elsewhere, Precambrian rock formations predominate. The surface geology of the eastern hardveld, exposed in its hill ranges, largely consists of basement complex rocks (more than 2.5 billion years old) intruding from northern South Africa and southern Zimbabwe. This complex is known to extend into younger rock formations (2.5 to 1.2 billion years old) in the extreme southern sandveld, while rocks of the Ghanzi and Damara groups (1.2 billion to 570 million years old) extend across the northwest corner of the country into northern Namibia. Drainage Drainage through the marshes of the Okavango delta is complex and imperfectly understood. The perennial Okavango River runs southward into its delta across the Caprivi Strip from the highlands of Angola. Most of its water evaporates from the 4,000 square miles (10,000 square km) of the delta wetlands. Floodwater reaches down through the eastern side of the marshes to the Boteti River, which flows sporadically to Lake Xau (Dow) and the Makgadikgadi Pans (also roughly 4,000 square miles in area). Less and less water flowed through the western side of the Okavango marshes during the 20th century, so that the 70-square-mile (180-square-km) Lake Ngami—famous a century ago—is today dry and almost unrecognizable as a lake. Meanwhile, the eastern Makgadikgadi Pans are flooded annually by the otherwise ephemeral Nata River from the Zimbabwe highlands, while the southern tributaries of the pans are now dry fossil valleys. The Molopo River and its Ramatlhabama tributary, on the southern border of Botswana with a course flowing into the Orange River, today rarely flood more than 50 miles (80 km) from their sources. Most rivers in Botswana are ephemeral channels, usually not flowing aboveground except in the summer rainy season. The two great exceptions to this rule are vigorous channels fed by the rains of central Africa—the Okavango River above its delta and the Chobe River flowing through its marshes along the northern border to join the Zambezi above the Victoria Falls. Soils The soils of the eastern hardveld consist of moderately dry red loamy mokata soils on the plains, or mixed chalky and sandy chawana soils, with brownish rocky seloko soils on and around hills. Seloko soils are considered best for grain crops. The fertility of all soils is limited by the amount of rainfall, which is sometimes inadequate on the hardveld and regularly unable to support any cultivation on the sandveld. The alluvial soils of the ancient lake beds include gray loamy soils in the wetlands, gray-green saline soils on the pans, gray clayish soils to yellowish sandy soils around the wetlands, and very chalky light gray soils around the pans. There are also areas of gray to black cracking clay in former wet areas, such as those around Pandamatenga. Climate of Botswana The annual climate ranges from months of dry temperate weather during winter to humid subtropical weather interspersed with drier periods of hot weather during summer. In summer, which lasts from October to March, temperatures rise to about 93 °F (34 °C) in the extreme north and southwest, the warmest parts of the country. In winter, which lasts from April to September, there is frequent frost at night, and temperatures may fall to near freezing in some high-altitude areas during the day. Summer is heralded by a windy season, the winds carrying dust from the Kalahari, from about late August to early October. Annual rainfall, brought by winds from the Indian Ocean, averages 18 inches (460 mm), representing a range from 25 inches (635 mm) in the extreme northeast to less than 5 inches (127 mm) in the extreme southwest. The rains are almost entirely limited to summer downpours between December and March, which also mark the season for plowing and planting. Cyclic droughts, often lasting up to five or six years in every two decades, can limit or eliminate harvests and reduce livestock to starvation. Plant and animal life The Kalahari sandveld has often been called “thirstland” to distinguish it from true desert. Even in its southwestern corner, where there are some bare sand dunes, the vegetation is more characteristic of dry steppe than desert. The general vegetation of the country is savanna grassland with yellow or light brown grass cover (turning green after rains) and woody plants. The savanna ranges from acacia shrub savanna in the southwest through acacia thornbush and tree savanna “parkland” into denser woodland and eventually forest as one moves north and east. Croton and Combretum tree savanna is found on the rocky hills of the eastern hardveld. Acacia tree savanna merges northward into mopane (African ironwood) savanna woodland. Mopane woodland covers most of the northern and eastern third of the country, with the exception of the open grasslands immediately surrounding the Okavango delta and Makgadikgadi Pans. Animal life is extremely varied in a thirstland environment. About 150 species of mammals are found in Botswana. These range from 30 species of bats and 27 of rodents to more than 30 species of large mammals. Birdlife is prolific, with more than 460 species. Botswana has a great variety of reptiles and amphibians, of which more than 200 species have been described in detail. The principal fish, in the rivers of the north, are tilapia (African bream), catfish, and the tigerfish, which is famous for its ferocious resistance to being caught on a line. There are several national parks and game reserves in Botswana, including the Central Kalahari Game Reserve—the largest reserve in the country and home to such animals as lions, black-backed jackals, elephants, foxes, ostriches, springboks, and zebras. Others include Chobe National Park, the Makgadikgadi Pans Game Reserve, and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, a conservation area jointly managed by Botswana and South Africa. More: Score: https://www.britannica.com/place/Botswana

2022/09/30

Visit Armenia. A video traveling Guide across the country

A non profit video guide dedicated to boost tourism in Armenia. We decided traveling in Armenia would be much better with a brief video introduction to make your trip unforgettable to Armenia.

2022/09/28

Uspostavljena suradnja između grada Tychy i grada Karlovca

Izaslanstvo grada Karlovca na čelu sa zamjenicom gradonačelnika Ivanom Fočić zajedno sa počasnim konzulom sa sjedištem u Krakovu, te nadležnošću za malopoljsko, podkarpatsko i šlesko vojvodstvo Pawełom Włodarczykom i veleposlanikom Tomislavom Vidoševićem boravilo je u petak 2. rujna u gradu Tychy u šleskom vojvodstvu. Tom prigodom zamjenica gradonačelnika Fočić potpisala je sa zamjenikom gradonačelnika grada Tychy Maciejom Gramatykom Pismo namjere o suradnji između grada Tychy i grada Karlovca. Temeljem odluke gradskog vijeća grada Tychy svečano je otvoren prvi kružni tok u Poljskoj nazvan imenom "rondo Chorwackie" - "Hrvatski kružni tok".

2022/09/28

La centésima décima octava edición del Boletín Cultural Quipu Internacional

La Embajada del Peru en Polonia informa sobre la remisión de la centésima décima octava edición del Boletín Cultural Quipu Internacional, número dedicado a la reconocida intérprete Susana Baca. El texto principal es del cineasta Miguel Barreda, quien realiza un perfil de Susana Baca, una de las cantantes peruanas de mayor renombre internacional y quien acaba de publicar el primer tomo de sus memorias.

2022/09/28

Sekretarz Stanu Arkadiusz Czartoryski spotkał się z Ambasador Indii Nagmą Mohamed Mallick

12 września 2022 r. Arkadiusz Czartoryski, Sekretarz Stanu w Ministerstwie Sportu i Turystyki spotkał się z Nagmą Mohamed Mallick, Ambasador Indii w Polsce. Tematem spotkania była współpraca obu krajów w obszarze sportu.

2022/09/28

Tytuły Sprawiedliwych wśród Narodów Świata rodzinom polskich bohaterek i bohaterów

Podczas uroczystości w Muzeum Polaków Ratujących Żydów/ Museum of Poles Saving Jews ambasador Izraela Yacov Livne wręczył tytuły Sprawiedliwych wśród Narodów Świata rodzinom polskich bohaterek i bohaterów, którzy w czasie Zagłady z narażeniem własnego życia nieśli pomoc Żydom.

2022/09/27