Abandoned Cyprus October 16th, 2015
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Varosha - until the 70s, a lively seaside city, where hundreds of tourists flocked from all over Europe. They say that Varosha hotels were so popular that the most fashionable rooms in them were reserved by prudent British and Germans for 20 years in advance. Luxurious villas and hotels, advanced by the standards of the 70s of the last century, were built here.
It was a cozy seaside town, very similar to today's Larnaca, with multi-occupancy hotels along the sandy beach, with churches and clubs, panel houses and private villas, with schools, hospitals, kindergartens and gas stations of Petrolina, the Greek oil monopolist of those times. New Famagusta stretched south along the eastern coast of Cyprus, covering an area of several tens of square kilometers...
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Varosha is the southern suburb of ancient Famagusta, there were several dozen high-rise hotels and boarding houses stretching along beautiful beaches (the best in Cyprus), and on the second line there was a Greek quarter with private estates, churches, and parks. The Turks traditionally lived to the north, in Famagusta. In the early 70s it was, without exaggeration, one of the coolest resorts in the Mediterranean! Then no one knew about Antalya and Croatia, but Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Richard Burton and many others vacationed in Varosha. The grace ended in an instant, on July 20, 1974, when Greek troops, under pressure from the advancing Turkish army, announced the urgent evacuation of Famagusta and Varosha. In a matter of days, tens of thousands of Greeks, fearing massacre, fled from Famagusta and Varosha, abandoning literally everything; There was food left in refrigerators, unmade beds, scattered things, family albums, cars in garages. People fled so quickly that if the Turks opened Varosha to the public today, it would become the most stunning museum of the apocalypse in the world, in which everything remained as if the people had just disappeared, evaporated. The trees that have sprouted in the apartments add additional zest to this drama.
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What can be seen here now makes a rather depressing impression - rotting villas alive, a church with drooping crosses standing waist-deep in thistles, weeds, cacti, rhododendrons. The inhabitants of Varosha currently include seagulls, rodents and stray cats. In the quiet streets, only the footsteps of UN peacekeepers and Turkish army soldiers can be heard. Four kilometers of golden sand beaches have remained unclaimed for more than three decades. A frozen crane, a row of hotels, bank buildings, locked with padlocks. Parts of the neon sign for the Venus disco are barely visible through the thick bushes and weeds. Houses and villas that have been looted more than once... 
On August 14-16, 1974, the Turkish army occupied 37% of the island, including Famagusta and one of its suburbs, Varosha. A few hours before the Turkish troops arrived in Famagusta, all the Greek residents of Varosha left their homes to become refugees in the southern part of the island, in mainland Greece, Great Britain and the United States. 16 thousand people left in full confidence that they would return in a week, maximum two. More than 30 years have passed since then, and they have never had the opportunity to enter their homes.
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Unlike many other places in Cyprus, where the abandoned houses of the Greeks were occupied by their Turkish neighbors or migrants from Turkey (the Greeks call them Anatolian settlers), the Turks from Famagusta did not settle Varosha. The Turkish army surrounded the empty village with a barbed wire fence, checkpoints and various other obstacles, essentially mothballing Varosha in the form in which the Greek Cypriots left it in August 1974. And in this form it has survived to this day - the most terrible monument to the civil war that divided the once binational Cyprus into two unequal ethnic halves.
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Every few years, hope for the return of the city to its inhabitants revived, but the parties have still not come to a compromise that would suit both communities. Varosha has become a bargaining chip in relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Varosha has long been the most impressive symbol of the island's division, haunted by the ghosts of the past.
Those who have managed to sneak through the wire fences erected by the Turkish army speak of plates of dried food left in the kitchens and dining rooms of once elegant villas and houses, laundry still drying on the lines, and incredible amounts of weeds infesting the streets. Varoshi. Prices on store windows date back to 1974.
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Varosha was subjected to total plunder by marauders. At first it was the Turkish military, who took furniture, televisions and dishes to the mainland. Then the residents of nearby streets, who carried away everything that the soldiers and officers of the occupying army did not need. Turkey was forced to declare the city a closed zone, but this did not save it from total looting: everything that could be carried away was taken away.
Although, there is an alternative vision of the conflict - the British organized and provoked it in order to prevent the spread of Soviet influence in the Middle East in general and in Cyprus in particular. Makarios was going to demand (or demanded?) that the British remove their bases from Cyprus, for which he paid with his life. “Turkish occupation” is, in fact, the entry of troops of another NATO country into Cyprus, and the organization of territory there that is not subordinate to the (close to the USSR) government of Cyprus and is even hostile to it. Maintaining Western control over this strategically important territory is much easier after partition.
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This is what PUERRTTO writes
A huge area, approximately 4 kilometers long and one and a half kilometers wide, is surrounded on all sides by fences. On one side, the zone is washed by the sea, on the other, ordinary Turks live literally right next to the fence. Their windows overlook the houses of their former neighbors. But you cannot cross the closed zone. I'm sure the local Turkish boys are climbing the fence and wandering around the dead city. But for an ordinary tourist it is almost impossible to do this. There are a lot of military, police, and just vigilant citizens. Even the very fact of your appearance in close proximity to the fence causes bewilderment and dissatisfaction of the military. And some local activists will also joyfully “knock” on the phone, saying that tourists are photographing the church behind the fence (proof)
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And, most interestingly, in the immediate vicinity of the abandoned neighborhoods there are completely inhabited areas of the city of Famagusta (Turkish part of Cyprus), including several coastal hotels. And the beach of one of them digs like an appendix into a ghost town, fenced off from it by a fence made of black material. The border passes just a few tens of meters from the sun loungers and umbrellas.
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First, there was a coup d'etat in this country, and the president was removed from power. Then another state brought its troops into part of its territory, annexing it and calling it a “peacekeeping operation.” We are not talking about any modern events at all, but about what happened exactly 40 years ago, in July 1974, in Cyprus. One of the results of the division of the island into Turkish and Greek halves was the appearance of a ghost town on its map. Dozens of high-rise hotels, sanatoriums, residential buildings and private villas were abandoned overnight by their owners and residents, surrounded by barbed wire and given over to looters and nature for many decades. We will tell you about the sunny history and ghostly present of Varosha, a luxurious Mediterranean resort that repeated the fate of the Ukrainian Pripyat.
(Total 66 photos)
1. Cyprus gained independence from Great Britain back in 1960, but the United Kingdom retained two large military bases on the island, which still have the status of a British overseas territory. The first years of the long-awaited construction of a strong, independent and prosperous state were accompanied by regular clashes between representatives of the Greek Orthodox majority and the Muslim Turks, who first appeared in Cyprus at the end of the 16th century, when the island was captured by the Ottoman Empire.
2. Ethnic clashes, however, did not prevent local residents, in addition to growing olives, from starting to develop tourism, which eventually became the basis of the island economy. Famagusta, a port city in the southeast of Cyprus, was turned into one of its centers.
3. From his great-grandfathers he inherited a Venetian fortress, several beautiful Gothic churches (some, however, in the form of ruins) and the remains of ancient Salamis, the largest ancient Greek city in Cyprus. All this, together with the climate, sandy beaches and the Mediterranean Sea, was enough to transform Famagusta into an international health resort.
4. In the 1960s and early 1970s, dozens of new high-rise hotels and apartment buildings sprang up south of the city, with apartments sold or rented to those wishing to soak up the hot Mediterranean sun.
5. The new district was called Varosha, and for some time it even seemed that it had only a bright and cloudless future ahead of it.
6. Golden Sands, Grecian, Argo, King George, Asterias - these and many other hotels in Varosha, lined along the front avenue named after John F. Kennedy, formed a new modernist face of Famagusta, attracting wealthy vacationers and even world stars of the first magnitude.
7. Coastal restaurants, nightclubs, fashionable shops, luxurious women with cocktails on the beaches, snow-white yachts - all that now remains of all this are old bright postcards that tourists who saw the city’s golden decade managed to buy as souvenirs or send to relatives who happened to be in Varosha was unlucky.
16. All this came to an end at the height of the tourist season of 1974, and the goose that laid the golden eggs for the city was cut off by the Cypriots themselves, with the help of the aggressive military of two NATO member states, who managed to fight with each other in the spirit of friendship.
17. In July, with the support of the notorious Greek “black colonels”, which were used to scare children in the Soviet Union, local radicals, who wanted an immediate and merciless reunification with Mother Greece, removed the President of Cyprus and also its main Orthodox Archbishop Makarios from power. In response to this outrageous putsch, the Turkish authorities, under the pretext of protecting the Turkish Cypriots, whom the Greeks allegedly intended to slaughter completely in an act of violent reunification, sent a “limited contingent” of their own troops to the north of the island.
18. During the “peacekeeping operation in Cyprus,” about 1,000 people died on both sides, several dozen tanks were destroyed, and one Turkish destroyer was sunk (and the Turks themselves sank it by mistake). The main result of the religious-ethnic conflict was the formation of the Republic of Northern Cyprus on the half of the island controlled by the Turkish army, which has now been solemnly recognized only by Turkey itself.
19. Famagusta found itself precisely in this Turkish sector, and Varosha, its resort area, was closely adjacent to the so-called Green Line, a demilitarized buffer zone controlled by UN troops and dividing the island into Greek and Turkish parts. Mostly Greeks lived in Varosha and owned most of the hotels here - for them the war for Cyprus ended virtually overnight with a rapid evacuation, and in fact, a flight to “their” half of the island. The area's 109 hotels and residential complexes, capable of hosting about 11 thousand guests, were instantly empty.
22. To the credit of the new Turkish authorities, they did not confiscate other people’s property, transferring it to new owners, but preferred to surround the neighborhood with a fence with barbed wire and limit access there.
23. Probably, at first they (as, in fact, the local residents who fled) believed that the conflict would somehow normalize and everything would somehow return to its previous, usual course. This, however, did not happen even 40 years later.
24. 10 years after the events described above, in 1984, the UN Security Council, at its next meeting dedicated to the situation in Cyprus, adopted a resolution, which, in particular, dealt with Varosha. According to the document, “attempts to populate any part of the Varosha region by anyone other than its residents” were declared unacceptable. This is how the transformation of the former resort into a ghost town was legally formalized.
25. Local residents, of course, were not allowed to return to their native region; the Turks did not need extra Greeks, and they themselves perceived the prospect of life under the new government, which was not too friendly towards them, ambiguously.
26. Varosha still remains under the control exclusively of the Turkish military, only UN employees are allowed here, tourists are prohibited from visiting its quarters, although it is difficult to deny the obvious: a “ghost area” even against the backdrop of ancient ruins, a Venetian fortress and Gothic churches (turned by the Turks into mosque) Famagusta became its main attraction.
29. You can admire (or be horrified by) her, however, only from behind the fence. Theoretically, penetrating its perimeter is not particularly difficult (over four decades, quite a few convenient holes have appeared in the fence), but being in the area with the prospect of arrest entails unpredictable consequences.
32. Almost all stories about Varosha are accompanied by a heartbreaking quote from Jan Olaf Bengtson, who managed to visit it in 1977: “The asphalt on the streets is cracked from the heat of the sun, and bushes grow in the middle of the road. Now, in September 1977, the dinner tables are still set, the clothes are still hanging in the laundries, and the lamps are still burning. Famagusta is a ghost town. The quarter is "frozen in time" - with shops filled with clothes fashionable in the seventies, and empty but fully equipped hotels.
33. The fragile imagination immediately draws an exciting picture of a city forever frozen in the mid-1970s, access to which is closed to millions of tourists eager to travel back in time only because of the tyranny and short-sightedness of Turkish militarists.
34. Reality is actually much more prosaic. The key phrase in the lucky Swede’s passage is “in September 1977.” Then, quite possibly, Varosha really looked like a full-fledged city, from which all the inhabitants simply disappeared at one point. Over the 37 years since that visit, the Turkish military, the administration and the evacuees themselves have removed almost everything of any value from the area.
35. So now there are no set dining tables, burning lamps or clothes in the laundries, but there is plenty of rusty scrap metal, crumbling concrete, vegetation that has filled everything, and, of course, the Turkish military. The latter, by the way, use the only Varosha building preserved in its original form as a recreation center.
37. However, even in such a fairly devastated state, Varosha has a lot of interesting things for lovers of “abandonment”.
38. Cars from the 1970s abandoned in garages and on the streets (including a whole fleet of Toyotas at a Japanese brand dealership in the area), furniture, household items and once valuable food products would delight relic lovers if they had access to them .
41. Alas, it is now incomparably easier to get to Pripyat, occupied by radiation, than to these quarters of Famagusta, which became victims of ethnic wars.
Compare: this is 1974.
And this is 2007. 
The difference is immediately visible: people have disappeared, mood has disappeared, the joy of life has disappeared. Because life is gone too. This - . Or rather, the once resort suburb of Famagusta - Varosha, surrounded on all sides by kilometers of barbed wire and chain-link mesh.
In the early 1970s, Famagusta, a city on the eastern coast of Cyprus, famous for its ancient monuments and sunny weather, was for beachgoers from all over the world what Turkish Antalya or Egyptian Hurghada are now for “Russian tourists”. Rich stars like Elizabeth Taylor and Brigitte Bardot loved to warm up and swim here. Inspired by the influx of “money bags,” Cypriots began to build dozens of modern high-rise buildings, mostly five-star hotels, on the outskirts of Famagusta, in the Varosha quarter. The fashionable suites in them were booked by the British 20 years in advance! The resort was developing and by 1974 it had reached the peak of popularity. That same year, Turkish army units landed on the island with NATO's blessing to protect the Turkish minority from persecution by a military junta led by ethnic Greeks. Famagusta also fell into the occupation zone (37% of the territory of Cyprus). The city was divided into Greek and Turkish parts, and Varosha became a neutral zone, which it was decided to surround with a fence and protect from all living things.
Varosha was resettled military-style, without ceremony. Linen and beach towels were left to dry on lines, and empty restaurants glowed with thousands of watts until the light bulbs burned out. They say that in local stores there are still untried outfits from 1974 fashion. Leaving half-eaten breakfasts and turned on TVs, 16 thousand local Greeks naively believed in a quick return. But for 35 years now, entry here has been allowed only to UN representatives and Turkish troops, who patrol the area in a jeep from morning to evening, every half hour. In addition, there is a small Turkish military base in the area where patrol officers sleep and eat.
In the days of the death of Varosha, it was heavily plundered by marauders, primarily Turkish soldiers. They say that a lot of local goods were subsequently sold... on the Istanbul market. Over the years, the abandoned city has been visited by many simple stalkers who take curious tourists to the zone for money. The skeletons of luxurious villas and a modest Greek temple are waist-deep overgrown with thistle and cacti, between which stray cats scurry and catch rats. Graffiti periodically appears on hotel walls. You can’t take pictures of Varosha, but many people do it secretly, and no one has been shot yet.
In some places it’s quite easy to get over the fence, and even in fashionable places you can freely walk, lie on a trestle bed with a bottle of beer, and even touch crumbling or unfinished hotels with your hand. By the way, garbage is removed from the golden sand beach every day.
Today, the dead stones of Varosha are stumbling blocks in relations between Greeks and Turkish Cypriots. The city is put “at stake” from year to year, but the conflicting parties each time do not find the strength to come to an agreement - for purely “selfish” economic reasons. The Greek community believes that the ghost resort is too little in response to the lifting of the embargo on the northern territories of Cyprus. The Turks are afraid that if they give up Varosha, they will receive nothing in return.
Several years ago, Cypriot authorities estimated that the restoration of Varosha could cost 10 billion euros. Experts believe that the simplest and most reasonable thing would be to demolish the ghost town completely and build a new fairy tale city in its place, running the time machine back: from the past to the future...
There was a city here, there was a resort... There is such a famous place in Northern Cyprus - Famagusta. Once upon a time there were the best beaches on the island, and real estate in the fashionable Varos area was the most expensive in Cyprus. But that was once upon a time. Now Varosha is a dead city, which ABSOLUTELY all residents have left and in which it is strictly forbidden for anyone to be. It is forbidden to even photograph the fence and what is visible through the fence, under threat of imprisonment!
Everything that exists at the moment is the result of the confrontation between greed and pride. And we are not talking about ancient times, but about the 20th century. First, a coup d'état took place in the country and the president was removed from power. Then another state brought its troops into part of its territory, annexing them and calling it a “peacekeeping operation.” At the time when someone was flying into space, there was a civil war on the island. Short but tragic. The result is divided cities, destroyed destinies, unrecognized territories and a “ghost town”...
Without exaggeration, it can be said that the beaches in Famagusta are the best in Cyprus, with fine sand and clear water. The ancient Greeks were the first to appreciate this, followed by the Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Romans, Venetians and, longest of all, the Ottomans, they knew a lot about pleasure...
Including beaches, the “tasty” island has always been the subject of claims by its closest neighbors - Greece and Turkey. This was also intensified within the island by the confrontation between two ethnic groups - Greek Cypriots and Turks, Orthodox and Muslims. However, ethnic differences did not prevent local residents from living peacefully side by side, growing olives together and building their own state. The small but proud country gained independence from Great Britain, which had considered Cyprus its colony since 1925, in 1960.
Given such nature and climate, it is logical that tourism has become the main sector of the Cypriot economy. Literally in a matter of years, the oldest port in the southeast of the island of Famagusta (Greek Ammochostos, Turkish Gazimagosa), stretching for 4 km along the shore of the bay of the same name, became a fashionable resort. It was especially famous for its modern, prestigious quarter on the coast - Varosha (Turkish: Maras). Besides nature, Famagusta had something else to surprise tourists with: the remains of ancient Salamis, the largest Hellenic city in Cyprus, a Venetian fortress, an Armenian monastery, and several Gothic churches. All this, together with the climate, sandy beaches and the Mediterranean Sea, was enough for Varosha to transform into the local Cote d'Azur.
This is what Famagusta looked like.
But that was more than 40 years ago... But what now? Are the surrounding ruins really that very prestigious resort?
Now it bears the name - the “dead city” of Famagusta... Although, in fact, Famagusta is by no means a dead city - tourists relax on the beach next to the demarcation fence and look at its suburb of Varosha, which was once a fashionable resort with a predominantly Greek population, and Nowadays, the “ghost town”, a clear evidence of the contrast and advantage of the “legal” Cyprus over the “illegal” one, is guarded by the Turkish army and is a restricted area.
In 1974, the Greek military attempted a coup d'état, resulting in the establishment of the dictatorship of the “black colonels” in Cyprus; this became a convenient reason for Turkey to send its troops to the island. The Turks claimed to have occupied about 30% of the island (this is exactly the ratio of Greeks and Turks that existed at that time). But in three days, Turkish troops occupied almost 40% of the territories, including Famagusta and Varosha.
One of the results of the division of the island into Turkish and Greek halves was the appearance of a “ghost town” on its map. Dozens of multi-storey hotels, sanatoriums, residential buildings and private villas were abandoned in an instant, surrounded by barbed wire and given over to looters and nature for many decades.
View of Varosha from the beach. You can still get here. There is a post under the two flags of Turkey and the unrecognized Republic of Northern Cyprus, where a sentry usually sits.
It is the abandoned city of Famagusta that has the most interesting history. Many tourists come to see the ominous ruins. Official visits to them are prohibited, but for a fee you can rent a small place with a telescope and use powerful optics to observe the ruins. Famagusta on the map of Cyprus is the main symbol of the division of the island into two parts, which Greek Cypriots still remember.
City `s history
The city of Famagusta was originally founded by an Egyptian pharaoh in III BC. e. Subsequently, Famagusta served as the residence of Richard the Lionheart and even became one of the main strongholds of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean. In the 70s of the last century, Famagusta was one of the largest tourism centers. New banks, hotels, and houses were constantly being built, and the city's economy flourished. The most expensive hotel rooms were booked several years in advance. Also, this city in Cyprus was quite often visited by the most popular personalities of that time, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Brigitte Bardot.
The popularity of the ghost town of Famagusta in Cyprus is clearly demonstrated by the number of different objects. Among them were about 45 resort-oriented, more than a hundred entertainment centers, as well as several thousand shops, significantly different in size - from supermarkets to usual shops. All this diversity was located in the suburbs, namely in an area called Varosha (some are inclined to believe that this is a separate city, but any map will prove that it is part of Famagusta), which subsequently suffered the most. It was an elite and fashionable area, housing the wealthiest tourists of the time. All this allowed the city to quickly develop its economy.
Turkish invasion
The entire idyll of peaceful life on the island was sharply disrupted by the occupation by the Turkish army. The invaders managed to take control of more than 40% of the territory of Cyprus, and the future dead city of Famagusta also fell into their zone of influence. The military forced civilians to leave their homes; they were allowed to take with them only what they could carry. As a result, the entire city was abandoned by its residents in just 24 hours. Locals left the city full of confidence that after a few weeks they would return again and continue to live as if nothing had happened. Unfortunately, these hopes were not destined to come true. However, some residents of Varosha managed to escape to the southern part of the island, even before the Turks began bombing the city.
On August 14, 1974, Turkey launched the second phase of the invasion, making it impossible for the townspeople to return to their homes. In fact, the entire Varosha area was surrounded by a large fence, guarded by Turkish soldiers. Initially, this was done to protect the remaining property from looters, but soon the soldiers themselves began to actively export almost everything they could get their hands on to their homeland. After some time, citizens supporting the new regime also joined in the looting, as a result, many buildings in Varosha do not even have window frames. It took several years, but now the formerly wealthy area of beachfront hotels and upscale residential neighborhoods is a pitiful sight.
All these events led to the creation of a new state - Northern Cyprus, which is still not recognized by European countries. It is subject to various trade restrictions, which makes life a little difficult for Turkish Cypriots. Despite this, the region is quite calm; to visit it you just need to cross the buffer zone guarded by UN troops, thanks to which peace is maintained here.
Features of the visit
You can get to Famagusta in Cyprus from Nicosia - buses run from there every 30 minutes. The total travel time will take no more than an hour. In the city itself, the distances between all objects are small. A detailed map pinpoints their location. There is no public transport there, since you can walk to any point or take a taxi if it is important to save time.
When traveling around the city, you should keep in mind that there are buffer zones everywhere controlled by Turkish and UN troops, which must be avoided as far as possible. Otherwise, Famagusta is no different from other resorts in Cyprus.
Varosha is a closed area, a kind of ghost in Cyprus, where tourists do not have access. There are warning signs everywhere along the border prohibiting passage. The Turkish soldiers guarding Varosha are well armed and have the right to shoot to kill if an intruder is detected. Therefore, it is not recommended to come close to the barriers. Taking photographs from behind the fence is also prohibited, and this may well lead to problems with local authorities. Only the following people can freely enter the dead city:
- Journalists - representatives of the press sometimes manage to obtain permission to enter Varosha in order to make a report, but even these cases are quite rare. It is thanks to them that modern society is able to see photographs of the lost area.
- Stalkers are people who are interested in visiting abandoned ruins. Places like Varosha are a real Klondike for them. As a rule, they bribe the guards in order to freely enter the restricted area. Some, however, prefer covert entry, which is the riskiest option.
Despite some decline, 5* hotels still operate in Famagusta, in addition, you can easily find 4* or even 3* options if you plan to spend very little time in the room.
Attractions
Famagusta has a decent list of places that tourists should definitely visit. This city in Cyprus is glorified by the following attractions:
- Othello's castle is a fortress that is directly related to Shakespeare's work of the same name, all the events of which took place here;
- Church of St. George;
- Cathedral of St. Nicholas;
- the palace of Giovanni Riviera, governor of the city during the reign of the Venetians;
- Also, while walking around Famagusta, you can find a square where there is a marble sarcophagus from the times of the Roman Empire.
If you wish, you can spend 10 minutes to get to the small town of Salamis, where ancient baths, basilicas and even an ancient amphitheater still stand.
The main difference between the attractions belonging to Northern Cyprus is their inviolability. In the south of the island, almost all historical monuments have been restored and look like new, while in the north no one has touched them for a long time. This creates the impression of real antiquity, unexplored history. Because of this, quite a lot of tourists come here, wanting to see objects that have been untouched for centuries.
Conclusion
Disputes about Varosha in Cyprus are still going on. The Turks and Greeks still cannot find a compromise, because when Northern Cyprus was ready to give up this territory, the Greeks refused. Now they are ready to take Varosha, but representatives of Northern Cyprus are demanding a complete lifting of the embargo in response. At the same time, Varosha acts as a kind of “anchor” for the Turks, because if pressure is applied, they threaten to populate the area with settlers, which will further increase the intensity of passions in the region. Due to this situation, the ghost town in Cyprus remains a closed place. Although excursions could well bring in substantial money, since many tourists would not refuse to walk along the streets, which until relatively recently were full of people.
