Mountain · Cyprus
Mount Olympus (Chionistra)
Mount Olympus, known locally as Chionistra, is the highest point of the island of Cyprus and reaches 1 952 metres. Snow lies on its pine forests every winter, high above the warm sea.
Picture credit: Paul Lakin (CC BY 3.0) · Gerda Arendt (CC0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Mount Olympus (Chionistra)?
Mount Olympus (Chionistra) is part of the Troodos Mountains.
You will find it in: Cyprus.
Summit: 34.936° N, 32.863° E
The story behind it
Mount Olympus is the roof of Cyprus, a broad rounded summit in the middle of the Troodos Mountains. Its name puzzles many people, because the Olympus of the Greek myths is a completely different mountain, far away in northern Greece. The rock here is dark and heavy and once lay deep beneath the floor of the sea, which is why geologists travel from many countries to study these slopes. Black pines and cedars grow on the mountainside, and in the forests below lives the shy Cyprus mouflon, a wild sheep with curved horns. In winter snow falls on the top and a small ski lift carries people up the white slopes, while down at the coast the air stays mild. A road and marked walking paths, among them the Atalante trail, lead around the summit area, so families can reach the cool pine air in an easy morning.
Find it on the globe
Mount Olympus (Chionistra) is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How high is Mount Olympus in Cyprus?
The summit reaches 1 952 metres above sea level. That makes it the highest point on the whole island, and every other peak in the Troodos Mountains stays below it.
Which country is Mount Olympus (Chionistra) in?
This mountain rises in the middle of Cyprus, an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It shares only its name with the Greek Olympus of the old myths, which stands far to the north in Greece.
Can you walk up Mount Olympus in Cyprus?
Getting high on this mountain is easier than on most big peaks, because a road runs almost to the top. Marked trails such as the Artemis path circle the summit area through the pine forest, and in winter the slopes are used for skiing.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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