A novel actinomycete, designated strain KT2025(T), was isolated from arid soil collected from Magusa, northern Cyprus. The taxonomic position of the novel strain was established by using a polyphasic approach. The organism had chemical and morphological features consistent with its classification in the genus Amycolatopsis. Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences supported the classification of the isolate in the genus Amycolatopsis and showed that the organism formed a cluster with Amycolatopsis nigrescens CSC17-Ta-90(T), Amycolatopsis minnesotensis 32U-2(T), Amycolatopsis sacchari DSM 44468(T) and Amycolatopsis dongchuanensis YIM 75904(T). 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity analysis indicated that strain KT2025(T) was most closely related to Amycolatopsis lurida DSM 43134(T) (97.5 %), Amycolatopsis keratiniphila subsp. keratiniphila DSM 44409(T) (97.4 %), Amycolatopsis keratiniphila subsp. nogabecina DSM 44586(T) (97.1 %), Amycolatopsis nigrescens DSM 44992(T) (97.1 %), Amycolatopsis azurea DSM 43854(T) (97.1 %) and Amycolatopsis minnesotensis DSM 44988(T) (96.9 %). The organism was found to have chemical features typical of members of the genus Amycolatopsis such as meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan, and arabinose and galactose as diagnostic sugars. The predominant menaquinone was MK-9(H4). The polar lipids detected were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylinositol and hydroxy-phosphatidylethanolamine. The major fatty acids were iso-C16 : 0, iso-C15 : 0 and iso-C14 : 0. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 70.8 mol%. Phenotypic data clearly distinguished the isolate from its closest relatives. The combined genotypic and phenotypic data and low levels of DNA-DNA relatedness with its closest relatives indicated that strain KT2025(T) represents a novel species of the genus Amycolatopsis, for which the name Amycolatopsis magusensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is KT2025(T) ( = DSM 45510(T) = KCTC 29056(T)).