Alsos Forest (officially Paidagogiko Institouto Alsos) is one of the municipal parks of

Nicosia Nicosia ( ; el, Λευκωσία, Lefkosía ; tr, Lefkoşa ; hy, Նիկոսիա, romanized: ''Nikosia''; Cypriot Arabic: Nikusiya) is the largest city, capital, and seat of government of Cyprus. It is located near the centre of the Mesaor ...

. The park forms an almost unbroken stretch of open land reaching from

Pallouriotissa Pallouriotissa ( el, Παλλουριώτισσα []) is an area of Nicosia, Cyprus, formerly an independent village, which was annexed to the municipality in 1968. It was subsequently divided into the quarters of Panayia (''Panagia'') and Sain ...

Aglandjia Aglandjia ( el, Αγλαντζιά []; tr, Eğlence) is a suburb and a municipality of Nicosia, Cyprus. The municipality has a population of 20,783 (2011) and is contiguous with Nicosia Municipality. Aglandjia is near the United Nations Buffe ...

. The forest is bounded on the northwest by the entrance to the

University of Cyprus The University of Cyprus (Greek: Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου) is a public research university established in Cyprus in 1989. It admitted its first students in 1992 and has approximately 7000 students. History The University of Cyprus wa ...

, and overlooks Cyprus European Presidential building and Aglandjia Public High School, located to its southeast. The park is one of Nicosia's largest ecological havens. It hosts a large playground, cafeteria, paths through the forest for pedestrians, and basketball and football courts.

History

The park was largely developed during the early 20th century. Most of the land had previously been a large wetland with shallow bodies of water. It had a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation. Under the effort of the British colonial government during their administration of the island, numerous

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

trees, brought from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, were planted, in order to absorb the water.

References

Parks in Cyprus Urban public parks Nicosia {{Cyprus-stub

History

See also

References