page_title: Troodos Mountains
section_title: Churches
hierarchical_section_title: Troodos Mountains / Churches
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Panagia Forviothissa (Asinou) nahe Nikitari, Zypern.
context_page_description: Troodos is the largest mountain range in Cyprus, located in roughly the center of the island. Its highest peak is Mount Olympus, also known as Chionistra, at 1,952 metres, which hosts the Sun Valley and North Face ski areas with their five ski lifts.
  The Troodos mountain range stretches across most of the western side of Cyprus. There are many mountain resorts, Byzantine monasteries, and churches on mountain peaks, and nestling in its valleys and mountains are villages clinging to terraced hills. The area has been known since antiquity for its mines, which for centuries supplied copper to the entire Mediterranean. In the Byzantine period it became a centre of Byzantine art, as churches and monasteries were built in the mountains, away from the threatened coastline. The mountains are also home to RAF Troodos, a listening post for the NSA and GCHQ.
  The name Troodos probably comes from one of two sources: either τρία + ὁδός, referring to the three roads that lead to the mountain, or τό + ὄρος + Ἄδος, meaning the mountains of Adonis.
context_section_description: The region is known for its many Byzantine churches and monasteries, richly decorated with murals, of which the Kykkos monastery is the richest and most famous. Nine churches and one monastery in Troodos together form a World Heritage Site, originally inscribed on the World Heritage List by UNESCO in 1985. The nine Byzantine churches are:
  Stavros tou Agiasmati
  Panagia tou Araka
  Timiou Stavrou at Pelendri
  Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis
  Panagia Podithou
  Assinou
  Agios Ioannis Lampadistis at Kalopanagiotis
  Panagia tou Moutoula
  Archangel Michael at Pedoulas
  Transfiguration of the Saviour Palaichori
caption: Panagia Forviothissa in Asinou village
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