Cyprus
3 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Cyprus. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
an island lying on the S. of Asia Minor, and the most easterly in the Mediterranean. Its greatest length is 145 miles, maximum breadth about 60 miles; area, 3,584 square miles. The chief features of its surface are two mountain ranges, both stretching E. and W., the one running close to the N. shore, and extending through through the long N. E. horn or prolongation of the island, the other and more massive (Mount Olympus) occupying a great part of the S. of the island, and rising in Troödos to 6,590 feet. Between them is the bare and mostly uncultivated plain called Messaria. There is a deficiency of water. The climate is in general healthy. The mountains are covered with forests of excellent timber (now under governesteemed one of the richest and most ment supervision), and the island is fertile in the Levant. Wheat, barley, cotton, tobacco, olives, raisins, and carobs are the most important vegetable products. The wine is famous. Silk-worms are reared, and a coarse kind of silk is woven. Salt in large quantities is produced. The minerals are valuable; the copper mines were of great importance in ancient times (the name copper is derived from that of this island), and are again being worked. Large numbers of sheep and goats are reared on the extensive pasture lands of the island. The principal towns are Lefkosia or Nicosia, the capital, the only conseaports siderable inland town, and the sea Larnaca and Limassol. The chief exports are carobs, wine, and cotton, with cheese, raisins, cocoons, wool, etc. After belonging successively to the Phoenicians, Greeks, Egypt, Persia, and again Egypt, Cyprus in 57 B. C. became province, and passed as such a Roman pro to the E. division of the empire. In 1191 it was bestowed by Richard of England (who had conquered it when engaged in the third crusade) on Guy de L Lusignan, and after his line was extinct, it fell into the hands of the Venetians (1489), with whom it remained till it was conquered by the Turks in 1571 and annexed to the Ottoman Empire. In 1878 it was ceded to Great Britain by the convention of Constantinople concluded between England and Turkey. The island has become much more prosperous under British administration, and roads, harbor-works, etc., have been constructed, trees planted, and schools opened. The head of te government is the chief-commissioner, commissioner, and there is a legislative council. Great Britain annexed the island in November 1914. Over three-fourths are Greeks, the rest Mohammedans. Pop. (1919) 311,108. Capital, Nicosia (pop. 16,632).
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
an Asiatic island in the eastern end of the Mediterranean. Its area is about 3,560 square miles. Its population is about 300,000, equal to that of Minneapolis. The island is mountainous. The central peak is 6,400 feet high. The streams or short mountain torrents go dry in midsummer. Roads, telegraphs, over 300 schools, post offices, and cables reaching Egypt and the Syrian coast, insure the intellectual development of the people. The raising of sheep and goats, of cotton, silk, raisins, wool, figs, olives, oranges, and tobacco, the making of cheese and wine, and the management of forests and sponge fishing engage the inhabitants. There are valuable quarries of building stone and ancient mines of copper. In fact, the English word, copper, is a corruption of cypress--c having the sound of k. By the ancients Cyprus was considered the halfway house between Asia and Greece. The island has been under the rule of Tyre, Assyria, Egypt, Persia, Alexandria, Rome, Constantinople, the Arabs, the Crusaders, the Turks and, since the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8, of Great Britain , under whose rule life and property are finally secure. About one-fourth of the inhabitants are Mohammedan, the rest are chiefly members of the Greek Church . In mythology Cyprus was sacred to Venus. Recent excavations on the sites of former temples have brought forth many treasures of art.
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
A large island in the Mediterranean, south of Cilicia and west of Syria, about 140 miles in length, and 50 miles in its greatest breadth.