Nicosia has over 3000 years of history as a settlement place and for most of this time it has been the capital of the whole island of Cyprus. 

Cyprus has been an important base of commerce for a lot of different actors between east-west silk road route. For this reason it has been occupied by many different civilasations through out its history. In Nicosia, you can still find plenty of old buildings from 1100's onwards which are still used today. For example, when the fleeing from Jerusalem, part of the Jerusalem Dynasty moved to Cyprus and built hugh cathedral type churces which are still being used as mosques today. Old Nicosia walls were built by Venetians and the old town centre contains countles old style houses and other buildings left from the Ottoman times. North Cyprus is also home to ancient greek civilazations' remains from pre-Chris times, such as Salamis, Soli and others.

Even today Nicosia is a divided city between two cypriot peoples, which uniquely makes it the only divided city in the EU. Nicosia is serves as the capital of the two communities. Nicosia is a wonderful example of old and new intertwining and working together in a modern life, giving visitors many different looks and cultural awakennings.