Strange images reveal the decay of an abandoned seaside town named Varosha, a beloved Mediterranean hotspot of celebrities like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, until the deadly 1974 Turkish invasion turned it into no-man’s land.
Located in the north of Cyprus in Famagusta, the town was considered the most popular tourist destination in the world — attracting more than 700,000 visitors annually.
“Anyone who comes from Varosha has a romanticized notion of it,” Vasia Markides, an American Greek-Cypriot whose mother grew up there, told the BBC in 2014. “They talk about it being the hub of art and intellectual activity. They describe it as the French Riviera of Cyprus.”
Once made up of a population of 39,000, the entire town dissipated between 1970 and 1974 during the war.
Other celebrities that frequented the town include Brigitte Bardot and Raquel Welch.
Occupying over 1,530 acres, the main features of Varosha included John F. Kennedy Avenue — a street which ran from close to the port of Famagusta through Varosha and adjacent to Glossa beach.
Along JFK Avenue, there were many well-known high rise hotels including the King George Hotel, the Asterias Hotel, the Grecian Hotel, the Florida Hotel and the Argo Hotel — which was Taylor’s favorite.
During the Turkish takeover of Cyprus, Turks took control of just over a third of the island nation, drawing up a border that runs right through the capital of Nicosia, which today is Europe‘s only divided capital.
Varosha’s 39,000 people were forced to flee — leaving behind their property, possessions and businesses.
The inhabitants who fled intended to return when the situation calmed down. However, the resort was fenced off by the Turkish military and has been a ghost town ever since.
A United Nations resolution of 1984 calls for the handover of Varosha to UN control and prohibits any attempt to resettle it by anyone other than those who were forced out.
“The picture that I had in my mind was of a kind of paradise,” Markides said of the day when she returned to peer across the wire at her ancestral home for the first time. “But it felt like some sort of post-apocalyptic nightmare.”
“You’re seeing nature take over. Prickly pear bushes have overrun the entire six square kilometres. There are trees that have sprouted through living rooms. It’s a ghost town.”
New photos of the abandoned town were captured by explorer Macorlee Farnaby, 26, who goes by the name of Macorlee Travels.
Farnaby told Jam Press he was stunned by the beauty, yet eeriness, of the town when he was walking through it.
“There was every type of building abandoned and the size was insane,” Farnaby said.
“Gift shops, bars, butchers, opticians, other businesses, hotels, apartments, villas, everything you can imagine,” Farnaby added. “It is still in control of the Turkish army and they walk around making sure everyone follows the rules and that people don’t go in the forbidden zones.”
Now, the ghost town has become a sight of the remnants of all its past residents.
The latest census of 2011 revealed that the town had just about 226 people living around it.
Varosha was opened to to the public in 2020, where tourists can view the abandoned buildings, but it comes with strict rules. You can’t actually go inside any of the properties.
Farnaby says he and his friends spent about five hours there and watched the sunset behind the backdrop of the high-rise buildings.
“You could see roofs caved in, rusty outside staircases going up blocks of flats,” Farnaby said. “The nature was really taking back its land … Walking around you could really feel how much of a thriving town it must have been back in its time.”
“Seeing homes with shoes still outside and knowing the people just grabbed a handful of items and ran thinking they could return in the near future, but knowing they never did really touched the heart,” he said.