Before the division of Cyprus in 1974, Varosha was a booming resort town with sky-scraping hotels, glamorous shopping districts, and sandy beaches frequently called the best in Cyprus. The rich and famous claimed Verosha as the most beautiful spot on the island.
According to the BBC, celebrities including Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Brigitte Bardot visited the island in its heyday. “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.” At its height, the resort town of Varosha was home to 39,000 residents and thousands more visited each year as tourists.
Varosha also attracted around 700,000 annual visitors and tourists. But after 1974, everyone but the Turkish military was forbidden from entering, and today, buildings in the once-booming resort town are crumbling and abandoned.
According to the BBC, after years of violence, Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 following a Greek-government-backed coup and gained control of the northern third section of the island, which included the district of Varosha. Tens of thousands of Greek Cypriots quickly left the area, fearing violence but intending to return once tensions settled down. Former residents have recalled their panic while fleeing their homes as troops invaded.
Some left their wedding presents in their attics, while others said they still had pots cooking on the stove when they evacuated. Following the invasion, the resort was fenced and blocked off by the Turkish military. It was abandoned for decades.
What was once a glamorous resort became a barren wasteland dotted with falling fences and barricades. Varosha remained part of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, or TRNC, until a United Nations resolution in 1984.
The decision placed Varosha under the control of the United Nations and forbade anyone other than those who were forced out in the 1970s from resettling there, according to BBC. While the city of Famagusta is home to thousands of residents, who are mostly Turkish, the Varosha sector was blocked off until recently.
Decaying buildings and rubble line the streets of the abandoned district. Signs labeled Varosha a “forbidden zone.”
Tourists were previously banned from entering or taking photos inside the fenced-off areas, but some managed to slip through over the years and documented what was left behind. After the town reopened in 2020, Turkish Cypriots were allowed through the fences to explore what remained. Now, anyone can visit with a valid passport. Before it reopened, buildings could be seen slowly collapsing, abandoned cars were rusting over, and the streets lay empty.
Many areas of the Varosha district are still blocked off for most people, according to the BBC. After travel restrictions were eased in 2003, former residents were allowed to return and peer into the forgotten resort through fences and barbed wire.
However, those who ventured back to the island found the once-booming area a crumbling ghost town and have not been permitted to permanently inhabit the town. Much of the resort remained largely how its former residents and visitors left it.
Tables were still set for meals and designer clothes could be found hanging inside now-abandoned shops. Cypriots returning to Varosha described it as “some sort of post-apocalyptic nightmare.” “The picture that I had in my mind was of a kind of paradise,” one Cypriot who returned to look across the fence at her family’s former home told the BBC. “You’re seeing nature take over. Prickly pear bushes have overrun the entire six square kilometers. There are trees that have sprouted through living rooms. It’s a ghost town,” she said. The reopening of Varosha, also known by its Turkish name Maraş, became a subject of controversy between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot communities.
According to a report by CNN in 2020, Ersin Tatar, prime minister of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, planned to start the reopening and potential rebuilding process in 2020. “It’s all ready in my opinion,” Tatar said in August 2020, according to Turkish state broadcaster TRT. “The tide has changed and a new page has been turned … Maraş is within the territory of the TRNC. Nobody can take it from us. We are continuing on our successful path.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said he wanted to reopen the resort town, but the move received backlash from Greek Cypriots. When the beach reopened and the fences surrounding Varosha were removed, the government only allowed Turkish and TRNC citizens to visit at first.
Ahead of Varosha’s reopening in 2020, the European Union’s foreign policy chief warned the reopening would “cause greater tensions” between Turkish and Greek Cypriots, who disagree on who rightfully should inhabit and profit off the northern section of the island. US officials have also spoken out against the reopening of Varosha. According to The Guardian, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in 2021 that the government opposed any attempt to reopen Varosha to tourists and locals alike. In a statement, Blinken called the Turkish Cypriot actions in Varosha “provocative, unacceptable, and incompatible with their past commitments to engage constructively in settlement talks.” “We urge Turkish Cypriots and Turkey to reverse their decision announced today and all steps taken since October 2020,” he continued. Tourists have returned to the beaches, but behind them sit decaying hotels.
The buildings are unsafe to go inside, but tourists have once again returned to the town’s sandy beaches. Today, visitors from across the world can swim in Varosha’s waters and take guided tours alongside the crumbling buildings.
According to the Cyprus Mail, visitors can tour Varosha between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. While visitors are not allowed to actually enter the blocked-off and crumbling buildings due to safety concerns, tour groups are permitted to walk alongside them, snap photos, and learn about the resort town’s complicated history.
