Magma chamber
A magma chamber is a large underground pool of liquid rock found beneath the surface of the Earth. The molten rock in such a chamber is under pressure, and given enough time. If it finds a way to the surface, the result will be a volcanic eruption, magma chambers are hard to detect, and most of the known ones are therefore close to the surface of the Earth, commonly between 1 km and 10 km under the surface. In geological terms, this is close to the surface, although in human terms. Magma rises through cracks from beneath and across the crust because it is less dense than the surrounding rock, when the magma cannot find a path upwards it pools into a magma chamber. Magma chambers are built up incrementally, by successive horizontal or vertical magma injections. Influx of new magma causes reaction of pre-existing crystals and the pressure in the chamber to increase, upon cooling, new mineral phases saturate and the rock type changes, typically forming gabbro, diorite and granite or gabbro, diorite and granite.
If magma resides in a chamber for a period, it can become stratified with lower density components rising to the top. Rocks accumulate in layers, forming a layered intrusion, the removal of the lower melting point components will tend to make the magma more viscous. If the magma is not vented to the surface in an eruption, it will slowly cool. Often, a volcano may have a deep magma chamber many kilometers down, as a volcano erupts, emptying the magma chamber, the surrounding rock will collapse into it. If a large amount of magma is erupted, causing the chamber to reduce considerably in volume, this can result in a depression at the surface called a caldera
Kykkos Monastery
Kykkos Monastery, which lies 20 km west of Pedoulas, is one of the wealthiest and best-known monasteries in Cyprus. The Holy Monastery of the Virgin of Kykkos was founded around the end of the 11th century by the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos, the monastery lies at an altitude of 1318 meters on the north west face of Troödos Mountains. There are no remains of the monastery as it was burned down many times. The first President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III started his career there as a monk in 1926. He remained fond of the place and returned many times. His request to be buried there materialised after his death in 1977 and his tomb lies 3 km west of Kykkos monastery and remains a popular visitor destination. According to tradition, a hermit called Esaias was living in a cave on the mountain of Kykkos. One day, the Byzantine governor of the island, doux Manuel Boutoumites, having lost his way in the forest he met Monk Esaias and asked him to show him the way. The hermit who was not interested in the things of this world would not answer his questions, Boutoumites got angry at the monks indifference and called him names and even maltreated him.
Not long after, when the returned to Nicosia, he fell ill with an incurable illness by the name of lethargia. In his terrible condition he remembered how inhumanly he had treated the hermit Esaias, the icon was kept in the imperial palace at Constantinople. When Boutoumites heard the hermits wish he was taken aback because he considered such a thing impossible, Esaias explained to him that it was a matter of divine wish and they agreed to travel together to Constantinople for the realization of their aim. Time was passing and Boutoumites could not find the opportunity to present himself in front of the emperor. For this reason he provided Esaias with other icons and other things and sent him back to Cyprus. By divine dispensation the daughter of the emperor had fallen ill with the illness that had struck Boutoumites. The latter grasped the opportunity and went to see the Emperor Alexios III Angelos and he recounted to him his personal experience with the monk Esaias and assured him that his daughter would be cured if he sent to Cyprus the holy icon of the Virgin.
In his desperation the emperor, seeing that he had no other option, agreed. The emperor, not wanting to be parted from the icon of the Virgin, called a first-class painter and ordered him to paint an exact copy of the icon with the aim of sending this one to Cyprus
Platres
Platres is a mountainous village in Cyprus. It is located on the slopes of the Troödos Mountains and is one of the Krasochoria. Platres is the largest Troodos resort, situated about 5km from Troodos square,25 kilometers north-west of Limassol and 45 kilometers south-west of the capital Nicosia. Platres is an old village and is mentioned among the 119 villages of the Limassol district that existed during the Lusignan Era. Platres or Pano Platres is the hill resort of Cyprus. The town has a resident population of fewer than 300, Pano Platres is a name given to the village in the recent years after the village of Tornarides was renamed to Kato Platres. Despite this change everyone refer to the village of Pano Platres with its name of Platres. In the past the villagers were mainly shepherds and vine growers, most vine fields were converted to orchards, producing cherries, pears and more. However, since the early 20th Century many people have dedicated themselves to the tourism sector. Platres has been a hill resort since the British took control of the island of Cyprus in 1878.
Over the years, Platres gained a reputation as the destination of choice for many people, including King Farouk of Egypt. The Brandy Sour cocktail, a drink intimately associated with Cypriot cuisine, was developed for King Farouk during the late 1930s, the same hotel is known as the location at which British writer Daphne du Maurier composed the majority of her acclaimed novel Rebecca. These are some of the reasons that Platres have been recently called The Village of Kings, Platres are the starting point for many nature trails as well as the Troodos Cycling Routes. Through the path of the Troodos Cycling routes, as well as some of other hiking trails is the area of Ayia Irini, from the rock of Ayia Irini you can see Platres village and enjoy the outstanding natural beauty. It is said that in the area during the Middle Ages a Frank monastery with a settlement existed at the area. Very popular nature trails are the Kalidonia Nature Trail which passes from the Kalidonia Waterfall as well as the Millomeris Nature Trail that leads to the Millomeris Waterfall, the village Old Municipal Market was renovated in the last years and transformed to a fully functional modern equipped Cultural Center.
The main area was renamed at Giorgos Seferis Hall and it can host all kinds of such as exhibitions, seminars, plays. Platres Athletic Sports Center is located at an altitude of 1050m in the heart of the Troodos Mountains making it one of the locations for sport events
Prodromos, Cyprus
Prodromos is the highest village in Cyprus at 1,380 metres above sea level. It is the main centre for winter sport, with three ski slopes located on nearby Mount Olympus. The village is part of the Limassol District, Prodromos is named after John the Baptist, whose title in Greek Orthodoxy is Prodromos meaning the Forerunner. Prodromos experiences a Mediterranean climate with warm to hot, dry summers and cool to cold, very wet winters
Omodos
Omodos is a village in the Troödos Mountains of Cyprus. It is located in the Limassol District of Cyprus and is 80 kilometers from the city of Nicosia, the village produces a lot of wine and holds a wine festival every August. You can visit a 17th Century stone built monastery via a cobblestone path and you will find a good mix of restaurants including traditional tavernas and a few modern bars housed in traditional buildings
Mountain resort
A mountain resort is a place to holiday or vacation located in a mountainous area. In hot climates hill and mountain resorts are visited for the temperatures at higher elevations. In China the emperors of the Qing Dynasty built the Chengde Mountain Resort in the 18th century, in Pakistan, the Galyat areas are a popular summer destination. They are favorite for a cold snowy experience in the winter, Ayubia, Kalabagh are some of the popular places. Other places like the Northern Areas which include Gilgit Baltistan and Kashmir are a choice, in the Philippines, the American colonial government built its first summer capital in Baguio to escape Manilas heat. In Turkey, city dwellers traditionally spent summer vacations at mountain resorts known as yaylas, in Cyprus the most popular mountain resort is Platres In Thailand the third highest mountain is a popular resort at Doi Ang Kang in Chiangmai province Fang District. Ski resort Dorward, Sherry Design for Mountain Communities, A Landscape and Architectural Guide Van Nostrand Reinhold ISBN9780442220952
Kakopetria
Kakopetria is a town in Cyprus located 55 kilometres southwest of the capital, Nicosia, on the north facing foothills of the Troodos Mountains. It stands at an altitude of 667 metres and it is the highest village in the Solea Valley, the community has about 1,200 permanent inhabitants and a couple hundred more who either have a summer house or are originally from kakopetria but work in Nicosia. It is surrounded by thick forestland and is built on the banks of the Kargotis and Garillis Rivers, the two rivers join within village itself and form the river Klarios, which crosses the Solea Valley and empties into Morphou Bay. The settlement of Kakopetria is constructed along the valley of the Kargotis and Garillis rivers, the new Kakopetria with its large, modern houses and their tiled roofs, built in the gradient ground and the riverbanks, is located in the eastern part of the valley. The old Kakopetria is built west of the valley and between the two rivers, the roofs of the houses are sloped and tiled and almost all of the houses have an upper floor and a wooden balcony.
The settlement of Kakopetria, although mentioned by the Mediaeval annalists, the villages region was inhabited around the 6 th -7 th century and the various excavations that have been conducted in 1938 around the old village of Kakopetria prove this. During the excavations a dispenser of an ancient shrine -most probably belonging to the goddess Athena -came to light, the findings most probably date back to the Archaic and Classic eras of Cyprus. Other statuettes represent Hercules and are an indication that he was worshiped in the area along with the goddess Athena. These findings are found in the Archaeological Museum of Nicosia
Sunshine duration
It is a general indicator of cloudiness of a location, and thus differs from insolation, which measures the total energy delivered by sunlight over a given period. Sunshine duration is usually expressed in hours per year, or in hours per day, the first measure indicates the general sunniness of a location compared with other places, while the latter allows for comparison of sunshine in various seasons in the same location. Another often-used measure is percentage ratio of recorded bright sunshine duration, an important use of sunshine duration data is to characterize the climate of sites, especially of health resorts. This takes account the psychological effect of strong solar light on human well-being. It is often used to promote tourist destinations, if the Sun were to be above the horizon 50% of the time for a standard year consisting of 8,760 hours, apparent maximal daytime duration would be 4,380 hours for any point on Earth. However, there are physical and astronomical effects that change that picture, atmospheric refraction allows the Sun to be still visible even when it physically sets below the horizon.
For that reason, average daytime is longest in polar areas, places on the Arctic Circle have the longest total annual daytime,4,647 hours, while the North Pole receives 4,575. Because of elliptic nature of the Earths orbit, the Southern Hemisphere is not symmetrical, the Equator has a total daytime of 4,422 hours per year. Given the theoretical maximum of daytime duration for a given location, bright sunshine hours represent the total hours when the sunlight is stronger than a specified threshold, as opposed to just visible hours. Visible sunshine, for example, occurs around sunrise and sunset, measurement is performed by instruments called sunshine recorders. For the specific purpose of sunshine duration recording, Campbell–Stokes recorders are used, when the intensity exceeds a pre-determined threshold, the tape burns. The total length of the trace is proportional to the number of bright hours. Another type of recorder is the Jordan sunshine recorder, electronic recorders have more stable sensitivity than that of the paper tape.
In 2003, the duration was finally defined as the period during which direct solar irradiance exceeds a threshold value of 120 W/m². The sky is clear in these regions, and fair weather is virtually perpetual, the descending branch of the Hadley cell and the long-term lack of atmospheric disturbances helps to explain the seemingly endless supply of sunny, cloud-free days in the deserts. Low clouding conditions are associated with rainfall shortage, as seen in these dry regions. In the belt encompassing northern Chad and the Tibesti Mountains, northern Sudan, southern Libya, some places in the interior of the Arabian Peninsula receive 3, 600–3,800 hours of bright sunshine annually. The largest sun-baked region in the world is North Africa, the sunniest month in the world is December in Eastern Antarctica, with almost 23 hours of bright sun daily
Byzantine Empire
It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city.
Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, the Roman Republic, and as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika.
The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
Pachna
Pachna is a village in the Limassol District of the Republic of Cyprus. It is situated on the slopes of the Troödos mountain range at an altitude of 745 m. The name Pachna is thought to originate from the ancient Greek word “πάχνη” which relates to the morning white frost found on following a chilly night. Another explanation could come from the meaning of “πάχνη”, a manger. During the Frankish and Venetian occupations of Cyprus the village appeared on maps under the name of Padena, chalky soil, its elevation and climate, have made Pachna an ideal location for viticulture. By 1985 statistics 830 hectares of land were registered with the department as cultivated with wine or table vines. Evidence that vines have been cultivated here since ancient times came from pottery found in excavations nearby, the vast majority of the cultivated grapes are the local varieties of mavro and xynisteri. Less common is the cultivation of olives, apples, census statistics show that from 1881 to 1960 the population increased steadily from 595 to 1564.
Currently the population stands at 865, the village has two main churches, St George and St Paul. The first primary school was established in 1855 and moved to its current location in 1938, most of these older buildings are built in the local Pachna stone which has its own unique chalky yellow character
Adonis
Adonis, in Greek mythology, is a central figure in various mystery religions. There has been much scholarship over the centuries concerning the roles of Adonis, if any. Modern scholarship sometimes describes him as a renewed, ever-youthful vegetation god. His name is applied in modern times to handsome youths. Syrian Adonis is Gauas or Aos, akin to Egyptian Osiris, the Semitic Tammuz and Baal Hadad, the Etruscan Atunis and the Phrygian Attis, all of whom are deities of rebirth and vegetation. Circa the sixth century BC, the appearance of the cult of Adonis is reported in Jerusalem by the biblical Book of Ezekiel, the most detailed and literary version of the story of Adonis is a late one, in Book X of Ovids Metamorphoses. The central myth in its Greek telling, daughter of Theias, king of Assyria, Theias finds out and is determined to kill her, when the gods intervene and turn her into a myrrh tree. Nine months the baby Adonis comes out of the tree, Aphrodite fell in love with the beautiful youth.
Aphrodite sheltered Adonis as a baby and entrusted him to Persephone. Persephone was taken by Adonis beauty and refused to him back to Aphrodite. The dispute between the two goddesses was settled by Zeus, Adonis was to spend one-third of every year with each goddess and he chose to spend two-thirds of the year with Aphrodite. Adonis died in Aphrodites arms, who came to him when she heard his groans, when he died she sprinkled the blood with nectar, from which sprang the short-lived anemone, which takes its name from the wind which so easily makes its petals fall. And so it is the blood of Adonis that each spring turns to red the torrential river, Afqa is the sacred source where the waters of the river emerge from a huge grotto in a cliff 200 metres high. It is there that the myth of Astarte and Adonis was born, adoniss birth is shrouded in confusion for those who require a single, authoritative version, for various peripheral stories circulated concerning Adonis parentage. The most widely accepted version is recounted in Ovids Metamorphoses, where Adonis is the son of Myrrha, Myrrha turned into a myrrh tree and Lucina helped the tree to give birth to Adonis.
The patriarchal Hellenes sought a father for the god, and found him in Byblos and Cyprus, pseudo-Apollodorus, considered Adonis to be the son of Cinyras, of Paphos on Cyprus, and Metharme. According to pseudo-Apollodorus Bibliotheke, Hesiod, in a work that does not survive, made of him the son of Phoenix. In Cyprus, the cult of Adonis gradually superseded that of Cinyras, Hesiod made him the son of Phoenix, eponym of the Phoenicians, thus a figure of Phoenician origin, his association with Cyprus is not attested before the classical era
Mountain range
A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically related. Mountain ranges are usually segmented by highlands or mountain passes and valleys, individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geologic structure or petrology. They may be a mix of different orogenic expressions and terranes, for example thrust sheets, uplifted blocks, fold mountains, most geologically young mountain ranges on the Earths land surface are associated with either the Pacific Ring of Fire or the Alpide Belt. The Andes is 7,000 kilometres long and is considered the worlds longest mountain system. The Alpide belt includes Indonesia and southeast Asia, through the Himalaya, the belt includes other European and Asian mountain ranges. The Himalayas contain the highest mountains in the world, including Mount Everest, mountain ranges outside of these two systems include the Arctic Cordillera, the Urals, the Appalachians, the Scandinavian Mountains, the Altai Mountains and the Hijaz Mountains.
If the definition of a range is stretched to include underwater mountains. The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, the sub-range relationship is often expressed as a parent-child relationship. For example, the White Mountains of New Hampshire and the Blue Ridge Mountains are sub-ranges of the Appalachian Mountains, the Appalachians are the parent of the White Mountains and Blue Ridge Mountains, and the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains are children of the Appalachians. The position of mountains influences climate, such as rain or snow, when air masses move up and over mountains, the air cools producing orographic precipitation. As the air descends on the side, it warms again and is drier. Often, a shadow will affect the leeward side of a range. Mountain ranges are constantly subjected to forces which work to tear them down. Erosion is at work while the mountains are being uplifted and long after until the mountains are reduced to low hills, rivers are traditionally believed to be the principle erosive factor on mountain ranges, with their ability of bedrock incision and sediment transport.
The rugged topography of a range is the product of erosion. The basins adjacent to a mountain range are filled with sediments which are buried and turned into sedimentary rock. The early Cenozoic uplift of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado provides an example and this mass of rock was removed as the range was actively undergoing uplift
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