Troodos ( ; ) is the largest mountain range in
Cyprus, located in roughly the center of the island. Troodos' highest peak is
Mount Olympus at 1,952 meters, which hosts four ski slopes. The Troodos mountain range stretches across most of the western side of Cyprus. There are many famous
mountain resorts, Byzantine monasteries and churches on mountain peaks, and nestling in its valleys and picturesque mountains are villages clinging to terraced hill slopes. 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 great centre of Byzantine art, as churches and monasteries were built in the mountains, away from the threatened coastline.