Cyprus - ruined cities of the North

Since the North Cyprus car insurance was only valid for three days, we went back on Tuesday. This time we crossed further to the east, after passing through the Cyprus’s only town located in the UN buffer zone. That would be a strange place to live, I think, between two countries that many consider one country.

Driving through North Cyprus is like stepping back in time. No one is wearing bell bottoms or playing disco music, but you can see that a lot of things haven’t changed since the 70’s. The most extreme example is the ghost city of Varosha. It used to be the swanky resort district of Famagusta (Gazimagusa in Turkish). In the early 1970s , it became one of the top tourist destinations in the world for the rich and famous. Now, you can’t go in. You can't even find it on a map - North Cyprus pretends it's not there. Since the Turkish invasion, it is simply fenced off and allowed to decay. The Turkish are holding it as part memorial and part bargaining chip since they won't release it to UN control. You’re not supposed to take photos, but of course we did:

Varosha

Old town Famagusta is built around a ruined city also. Bordered by medieval city walls (built by the Venetians), you can’t go anywhere in the old town without seeing a 13^th or 14^th century church or some kind of ruined building. In most other European countries, each of these places would have sign explaining their history. They would charge admission and have a souvenir shop at the gate. In North Cyprus, you can stand on the 15^th century city wall with no railing to protect you, wander among the ruins without another tourist in sight, and the only fences around these historical attractions are covered in barbed wire. 

Next we drove through the newer, brighter, more crowded parts of Famagusta, including a KFC and multiple coffee shops (as a non-coffee-drinker I feel left out of this caffeinated brotherhood somehow) and out to the ruined city of Salamis.  The city was built around 1000 B.C. In about 300 B.C., Salamis was the capital and main trading center of Cyprus. It’s hard to wrap my head around that kind of antiquity. The Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans all left their mark, though most of the buildings that you can visit today were built by the Romans in the 3^rd and 4^th centuries A.D. Some of the buildings are little more than piles of rocks, but the baths, the gymnasium, theater and roads are still intact.

Salamis

I'll bet they don't let you do this in Athens

There are two theories on why all the statues at Salamis are headless. The heads, which were always attached after the body was sculpted, may have fallen off during an earthquake. The other theory is that the early Christians knocked them off to destroy traces of pagan religion left by the Greeks and Romans.

Gymnasium at Salamis

The amphitheater at Salamis held 15,000 people. I'm on the left.

It makes me wonder what our cities will look like in 2000 years. Will any trace be left at all? Will anyone be around to see them? As the vines take over the ghost town of Varosha, I can start to imagine it.