Cyprus
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(1 Macc 15:23; Acts 4:36; 11:19 and elsewhere) - an island in the eastern Mediterranean between the Cilician and Phoenician coasts, shaped like an irregular parallelogram and ending in a long narrow northeastern peninsula. A range known in ancient mythology as the Olympian mountains runs the island's length, with Mount Olympus reaching about seven thousand feet. Picturesque plains south of the range abounded in narcissus, anemones, and buttercups. Cyprus was celebrated for wheat, grapes, pomegranates, figs, fragrant resin, wax, honey, silk, and cotton. Its cedar, cypress, and oak forests supplied excellent ship timber; it also possessed copper mines and produced wine, fruit, honey, and flax.