The abandoned town in Cyprus where celebrities used to frolic
The Cypriot resort of Varosha, which was abandoned decades ago when it suddenly became a battleground of a war between Greece and Turkey, may become a tourist hotspot once again under new post-coronavirus plans. The once-glittering Mediterranean seaside town, a southern suburb of the eastern city of Famagusta, has been fenced off and abandoned since Turkey invaded Cyprus five days after a Greek-inspired coup on July 15, 1974. It was considered one of the most popular holiday resorts in the world in the early 1970s, with high-profile visitors including Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton seen wandering along its golden beaches. As well as attracting tourists, Varosha was home to over 39,000 residents who were forced to flee their homes like these in 1974 While the city is, as the sign says, a ‘forbidden zone’, in 2003, travel restrictions were eased for the first time, allowing Cypriots on both sides to cross the UN Buffer Zone, commonly known as the ‘Gre...