The people of Cyprus represent two main ethnic groups, Greek and Turkish. The Greek Cypriots, who constitute about four-fifths of the island's 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.

The language of the majority is Greek. English is widely spoken and understood as a second language. Illiteracy is extremely low, the result of an excellent educational system.

Under the Ottoman Empire, the archbishop of the Church of Cyprus was made responsible for the secular as well as the religious behaviour of the Orthodox community and given the title ethnarch.

Apostolos Andreas monastery, an important religious place to the Orthodox Greek-Cypriots remains open for service and is visited in numbers by worshipers from South Cyprus on religious festivals such as Christmas and Easter according to an agreement reached by the Turkish-Cypriot and Greek-Cypriot authorities under the auspices of the United Nations. This agreement also allows Turkish-Cypriots from the North to visit the holy Hala Sultan Tekke in Larnaca on Muslim holy days.

• Encyclopedia Brittanica 

  People & Life