For 46 years Varosha, once a holiday destination for the rich and famous, lay crumbling behind a military fence. But yesterday locals were able to wander the streets of the Cypriot town for the first time in two generations after the government of north Cyprus opened it to the public.
The town, once home to 40,000 people, was abandoned during the war of 1974 which split the island between its Greek and Turkish-speaking populations. It fell on the north side of the dividing line, in an area controlled by the Turkish army, which then declared its own sovereignty in 1983.
Even to the people of north Cyprus, however, Varosha remained off limits; only Turkish military personnel have been allowed to enter the area to sunbathe