It is the most widely-recognised Mediterranean cypress due to its being planted extensively in cemeteries and churchyards and use in gardening to create hedges and windbreaks. It has a distinctive long, bushy shape, as well as dark green, scale-like leaves and oblong fruits that ripen every two years.

Its wood has been highly prized since antiquity. Legend has it that its wood was used to build part of Noah's Ark, the Temple of Solomon and Alexander the Great's fleet.