Lefkosa/Nicosia: A Divided City and the Last Green Line in the World

Lefkosa is the capital of a divided Cyprus. The Green Line patrolled by the UN serves as the de facto border between Northern and Southern Cyprus, and this line runs through the centre of Lefkosa and virtually cuts the city into two separate ethnic enclaves.

The view of the giant flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus carved onto a hillside for all to see. In the night, the flag is lighted with thousands of light bulbs twinkling non-stop in the darkness.

Kyrenia/Girne: the No.1 Tourist Attraction of Northern Cyprus

Kyrenia (Girne in Turkish) is the most picturesque town in Northern Cyprus, as well as its most popular tourist attraction. The view of Kyrenia's scenic harbour appears on virtually all the tourism publications about Northern Cyprus, and for years European holidaymakers (especially the English) have been flocking to the hotels and resorts gracing the fine sandy beaches near Kyrenia in spite of the international economic embargo imposed upon the Northern Cyprus administration by the UN since the early 1980s. Previouly a predominantly Greek-Cypriot town, the majority of inhabitants in today's Kyrenia are Turkish-Cypriots and settlers from Turkey.

An Endangered Medieval City: Famagusta/Gazimagusa, Northern Cyprus

Famagusta (Gazimagusa in Turkish), a beautiful medieval town in Northern Cyprus, is probably among the biggest losers of the long-drawn-out political saga otherwise known as the Cyprus  conflict. This serene historical town, with  a pretty medieval centre and a natural  deep-water harbour, used to be an A-List holiday paradise in the 1960s and early 1970s, with some of the regions' most luxurious hotels and bars frequented by big-name Hollywood stars, as well as the rich and the famous from nearby Lebanon, the Levant and other countries in Europe.

 The heydays of Famagusta as one of the top tourist resorts in the whole of the Mediterraean was put to an abrupt stop in 1974. In the aftermath of Turkey's military intervention in Northern Cyprus, the entire district of Varosha - the tourist quarter of Famagusta - was sealed off by the Turkish army and has since remained closed to this day. No entry into Varosha is allowed except for UN and Turkish army personnels. Although the Turkish-Cypriot government had agreed to hand over Varosha to Greek-Cypriot control under the Cyprus peace agreement mediated by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, the fact that this peace agreement was rejected by the Greek-Cypriots means that Varosha remains a closed ghost-town in the foreseeable future.