The strange images show the decay of the abandoned seaside town of Varosha, a beloved Mediterranean hotspot of celebrities akin to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, until the deadly Turkish invasion in 1974 turned it right into a no man’s land.
Situated in the north of Cyprus, the town of Famagusta was considered the world’s hottest tourist destination, attracting greater than 700,000 visitors a yr.
“Everyone who comes from Varosha has a romantic idea of it,” Vasia Markides, a Greek-Cypriot American whose mother grew up there, told the BBC in 2014. “They are saying it’s a middle of art and mental activity. They describe it because the French Riviera of Cyprus.
Once a population of 39,000, your entire city dispersed between 1970 and 1974 through the war.
Other celebrities who’ve frequented the town include Brigitte Bardot and Raquel Welch.
Covering over 1,530 acres, the essential a part of Varosha included John F. Kennedy Avenue – a street that runs from Famagusta Harbor through Varosha and is adjoining to Glossa Beach.
![A map showing the location of Varosh.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/5f4fb126e6ff30001d4e6998.jpeg?w=1024)
![Varosha in the 1960s.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/5f4fb1f9e6ff30001d4e69a5.jpeg?w=1024)
![The city reopened to the public in 2020.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/201008130553-04-varosha-1008.jpeg?w=1024)
There have been many famous high-rise hotels along JFK Avenue, including the King George Hotel, the Asterias Hotel, the Grecian Hotel, the Florida Hotel, and the Argo Hotel—which was Taylor’s favourite.
In the course of the Turkish takeover of Cyprus, the Ottomans took control of just over a 3rd of the island nation, drawing a border through the capital Nicosia, which today is Europe’s only divided capital.
Varosha’s 39,000 inhabitants were forced to flee – abandoning their property, possessions and businesses.
Residents who had fled intended to return when the situation calmed down. Nevertheless, the resort was cordoned off by the Turkish military and has been a ghost town ever since.
![Visitors walk along a street lined with abandoned buildings in the gated coastal town of Varosha in the east, October 2020.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/648b6b1b51ea980019d68f11.jpeg?w=1024)
![Located in the north of Cyprus in Famagusta, the town was considered the most popular tourist destination in the world](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910452.jpg?w=1024)
![It is located in the north of Cyprus in Famagusta.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910752.jpg?w=1024)
A 1984 United Nations resolution calls for the transfer of Varosha to UN control and forbids any try to resettle it by anyone apart from those that have been displaced.
“The image I had in my mind was something like paradise,” Markides said of the day she returned to see through the wire into her ancestral home for the primary time. “Nevertheless it felt like some kind of post-apocalyptic nightmare.”
“You see nature taking up. Prickly pear bushes cover your entire six square kilometers. There are trees which have grown in living rooms. It is a ghost town.”
![More than 700,000 tourists visited the city annually.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910461.jpg?w=1024)
![39,000 inhabitants fled between 1970 and 1974.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910486.jpg?w=1024)
![celebrities such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910448.jpg?w=1024)
The new photos of the abandoned city were taken by 26-year-old explorer Macorlee Farnaby, whose name is Macorlee Travels.
Farnaby told Jam Press that he was stunned by the sweetness, yet eerieness, of the town as he walked through it.
“There have been all types of abandoned buildings and the dimensions was crazy,” Farnaby said.
“Souvenir shops, bars, butchers, opticians, other businesses, hotels, apartments, villas, anything you possibly can imagine,” Farnaby added. “He still controls the Turkish army that walks around ensuring everyone follows the principles and that individuals don’t enter the forbidden zones.”
![The Argo Hotel was a favorite of Elizabeth Taylor.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910444.jpg?w=1024)
![AMAZING images reveal the decay of an abandoned seaside town](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910477.jpg?w=1024)
![Residents fled with the intention of returning when the situation calmed down.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910496.jpg?w=1024)
Now the ghost town has change into a sight to behold the remnants of all its former inhabitants.
The last census in 2011 showed that around 226 people lived around the town.
Varosha opened to the general public in 2020, where tourists can view abandoned buildings, nevertheless it comes with strict rules. You’ll be able to’t actually enter any of the properties.
Farnaby says he and his friends spent about five hours there and watched the sun set against the skyscrapers.
![Macorlee Farnaby was the last explorer to visit the ghost town.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910753.jpg?w=1024)
![The city covers over 1,530 acres.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910462.jpg?w=1024)
![The United Nations signed a resolution in 1984 stating that only the original inhabitants were allowed to live in the city.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012910459.jpg?w=1024)
“You would see the collapsed roofs, the rusty exterior staircases leading as much as the blocks,” Farnaby said. “Nature was really taking back its land…Walking across the neighborhood you can really feel how prosperous the town will need to have been in its time.”
“Seeing the shoe houses still outside and knowing that individuals just grabbed a handful of things and ran away, considering they may come back in the near future, but knowing they never did was really heartbreaking,” he said.