More than 2.4 million tourists head to Cyprus each year and the merest mention of its  name alone conjures up images of breathtaking backdrops, exotic sights and scintillating sunshine; however, if you asked most people to point out the island on a map, it’d be like watching a group of particularly malcoordinated  children playing pin the tail on the donkey. It might be a perennial favourite for holidaymakers of all ages, but not much is known about Cyprus.

First and foremost, it’s the third biggest of the Mediterranean islands – with Sicily and Sardinia taking the first and second spots respectively – and, for those who don’t know their Moscows from their Madrids, Cyprus is in the very eastern-most part of the Mediterranean, just 60 miles from Syria.

Most tourists know that the country boasts fantastic ancient and heritage sites and this, in no small part, is down to its location. Balanced as it is between Europe, Africa and Asia, Cyprus has been of great tactical importance; it was a springboard from which the civilisations of Assyria, Egypt, Persia and Islam all expanded. It also served as the motorway services of its day – the Christian Crusaders, Romans and Alexander the Great all stopped off at Cyprus for a quick nip to the toilet, microwave sausage rolls, bumper packs of jelly babies and copies of the AA Medieval Map of the Ancient World on their long journeys to the Holy Land.

Later, some extremely clever Brits realised that Cyprus was a far nicer place to live than smog-ridden London and so made up the cunning excuse that the island was needed as a military stronghold in order to protect the shipping route to India. Cyprus gained independence from the UK in 1960, becoming a Commonwealth state in 1961, however that’s when some of its worst problems started.

Following a long period of violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of the island in 1974. An UN-patrolled Green Line still separates the northern Turkish third of the island from the southern Cypriot part and the situation is on-going, although is extremely calm with no major incidents or violations of the ceasefire lines.