Karpas peninsula is also almost totally free from industry and people, and is one of the least polluted regions in Europe. There is a substantial amount of biological diversity with a significant amount of endemic species -plant species number about 1,600 (22 endemic); bird species about 350 (7 endemic); and there are 26 reptile and amphibian species for most of which the Karpas is the natural home.

Being also on one of the main migration routes of birds between Eastern Europe and Africa, each year approximately 300 species amounting to millions of birds use this route in early spring and late summer.

Moreover, about 46 sandy beaches in the Karpas comprise the main nestling ground for the endangered Chelonia Mydas and Caretta Caretta sea turtles in the Eastern Mediterranean. In 1992, about 1,500 rare female turtles laid eggs on the shores of North Cyprus.

As well as numerous Byzantine churches, the most notably the Monastery of Apostolos Andreas, the area boasts some of the finest countryside in the country.

This is one of the pilgrimage centres of Orthodox Church of Cyprus, and is at the tip of the Karpas peninsula.

It was once the Lourdes of Cyprus, served not by an organized community of monks but by a changing group of volunteer priests and laymen.

An enormous modern plaza of pilgrims lodgings frames the slightly older monastery buildings wrapped around the church. Below, the modern church steps lead down to a square, vaulted chapel, three baptismal basins fed by a sacred spring and an old wharf.