Travel and Tourism in Cyprus

The North — Kyrenia, Famagusta and the Divided Island

Northern Cyprus occupies approximately 37 percent of the land area of the island, comprising the Kyrenia district in the northwest, the Karpaz Peninsula in the northeast, and the eastern coastal strip including the city of Famagusta. Officially known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), it is recognized as a sovereign state only by Turkey; the rest of the international community regards it as occupied territory of the Republic of Cyprus. This political status has complex practical implications for visitors: entering northern Cyprus directly from Turkey (via the international airport at Ercan or via the ferry from Mersin) is technically illegal under Cypriot law and may create complications for subsequent entry into the Republic of Cyprus. The recommended route for most visitors is to cross from the south at one of the several UN-monitored checkpoints, of which the most convenient for most purposes are the Ledra Street/Lokmaci checkpoint in central Nicosia, the Ledra Palace checkpoint just outside the old city walls, and the Agios Dometios/Metehan checkpoint on the western side of Nicosia. Vehicle crossings are also possible at several rural checkpoints.

Despite the political complications — or perhaps in some ways because of them — northern Cyprus is one of the most rewarding parts of the island to visit. It is noticeably less developed than the south, with less tourist infrastructure but also less commercialization, and in some areas a quality of quietness and even wilderness that is difficult to find in the south's more developed coastal strips. The political situation means that some significant historical monuments have suffered from neglect, inappropriate conversion, or active damage, and visiting them involves a degree of historical awareness that adds an extra layer of meaning to the experience.

Kyrenia (Girne in Turkish) is the most visited destination in northern Cyprus and one of the most beautiful small harbor towns in the Mediterranean. The harbor — a small, ancient harbor enclosed by Crusader and Venetian fortifications, with the great bulk of Kyrenia Castle rising at one end — is so perfectly composed that it seems almost too picturesque to be real. Fishing boats and small pleasure craft bob in the enclosed water, restaurants and cafes line the quayside, and the castle's towers are reflected in the still water of the harbor on calm evenings. This view, perhaps more than any other single image, represents northern Cyprus to the outside world, and the reality — at least in the hours before the tourist coaches arrive in mid-morning — largely justifies the reputation.

Kyrenia Castle itself is a substantial fortress with origins in the Byzantine period, heavily rebuilt and expanded by the Lusignans and then further modified by the Venetians. The most compelling attraction within the castle is the Shipwreck Museum, which houses the remains of a Greek merchant vessel that sank off the coast of Cyprus in approximately 300 BCE — making it one of the oldest wrecks ever recovered and one of the most significant marine archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century. The ship, which was discovered by a sponge diver in 1965 and subsequently excavated by a team from the University of Pennsylvania, carried a cargo of wine amphorae, millstones, and almonds, and provides an extraordinarily vivid picture of seaborne trade in the Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean. The timber hull, preserved in the anaerobic conditions of the seabed for more than two thousand years, is displayed in a controlled environment inside the castle, accompanied by the original amphorae and other finds.

Saint Hilarion Castle, perched on a jagged peak of the Kyrenia Range above the town, is the most romantically situated castle on the island and, by many accounts, in the entire Mediterranean. The castle was built in stages from the tenth century onward, originally as a Byzantine military post and monastery, and expanded by the Lusignan kings into a royal summer residence as well as a military fortification. Its position — seemingly growing out of the living rock at the summit of one of the sharpest peaks of the Kyrenia Range, with the castle walls and towers merging with the natural stone at every level — is so improbable and so theatrical that it has given rise to a persistent legend that the castle inspired the design of the castle in Walt Disney's Snow White, via an interpretation that connects its fairy-tale silhouette to the queen's castle in the film. The story is apocryphal — Disney's art directors were working from European fairy-tale imagery more broadly — but it captures something real about the castle's appearance. Climbing through the three wards of the castle — lower, middle, and upper — involves some scrambling on steep and uneven stone, but the views from the upper ward, where the remains of a royal suite with a carved window looking north over the sea toward Turkey are preserved, are worth every step.

Buffavento Castle, further east along the Kyrenia Range at an even higher elevation (955 meters), is more ruined and less accessible than Saint Hilarion, but those who make the climb on foot are rewarded with the most spectacular views of any point on the ridge — stretching from the Troodos in the south to the coast of Turkey in the north, and east along the entire length of the Kyrenia Range. The name means "buffeted by winds" in Italian, and the summit is indeed exposed to strong winds for much of the year.

Bellapais Abbey, in the village of the same name above Kyrenia, is one of the finest Gothic ruins in the eastern Mediterranean — a thirteenth-century Augustinian abbey founded under Lusignan patronage that reached the peak of its prosperity and architectural ambition in the fourteenth century. The cloister and the refectory are the best-preserved portions, and the refectory in particular is extraordinary — a large, vaulted Gothic hall lit by pointed windows that look north over the sea, its walls decorated with carved stone corbels. The English writer Lawrence Durrell lived in the village of Bellapais in the 1950s and wrote about his experiences there in Bitter Lemons of Cyprus, one of the finest books ever written about the island, and the tree under which he wrote much of the book — the famous Tree of Idleness in the village square — is still pointed out to visitors.

Famagusta (Gazima?usa in Turkish) is the great ghost city of Cyprus — a place where medieval and ancient greatness coexist with modern desolation in a combination that is unlike anything else on the island or, arguably, anywhere in the Mediterranean. The Venetian walls that surround the old city of Famagusta are the most complete and best-preserved medieval city walls in the world — a military engineering achievement that, when they were built in the sixteenth century, represented the cutting edge of European military science. They failed to stop the Ottomans in the legendary siege of 1571, which ended with the execution of the Venetian commander Marcantonio Bragadin, but they have survived the subsequent centuries with remarkable completeness.

Within the walls, the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas — built by the Lusignans between 1298 and 1400 in a French Gothic style clearly inspired by Notre-Dame de Reims — is now the Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque, with minarets added after the Ottoman conquest and all Christian imagery removed from the interior. The exterior Gothic facade, with its three portals and its carved decoration, is still magnificent, and the interior, while stripped of its Christian character, retains the soaring Gothic spatial quality of the original design. Shakespeare set his play Othello partly in Famagusta — or at least in a city clearly inspired by it — and the tower at the entrance to the harbor is known as Othello's Tower in reference to the connection, though the historical Moor of Venice had no connection to Cyprus other than through Shakespeare's imagination.

The walled old city contains dozens of ruined Gothic churches and secular buildings, the remains of the medieval city that was once one of the richest cities in the world, a trading hub at the junction of the Silk Road and the Mediterranean spice trade. Many of these ruins stand open to the sky, converted to mosques or warehouses and then abandoned, inhabited now only by feral cats and by the particular melancholy that attaches to places where greatness has been overtaken by time. Walking through Famagusta's old city is one of the stranger and more moving experiences Cyprus offers.

Varosha (Maras in Turkish) is an area of Famagusta that was a prosperous beach resort before 1974, when it was abandoned by its Greek Cypriot population during the Turkish military advance and has been largely fenced off and uninhabited since. In recent years parts of Varosha have been reopened by the Turkish Cypriot authorities under circumstances that the Republic of Cyprus and the international community consider a violation of UN resolutions, and the situation remains politically extremely sensitive. The abandoned hotel towers visible behind the fences have become one of the iconic images of the division of Cyprus.

Ancient Salamis, just north of Famagusta, was the most important city of Cyprus for much of the island's history — the largest and most prosperous of the ancient kingdoms, founded in the early Iron Age and eventually reaching a population and level of cultural sophistication that made it the effective capital of the island under various foreign rulers. The archaeological site covers a large area along the coast and includes the remains of a gymnasium complex with an extraordinary colonnade of marble columns reassembled from fallen pieces, a large theater currently under restoration, Roman baths, and a temple of Zeus. The gymnasium columns, standing against the backdrop of the sea, are one of the most photographed archaeological images in Cyprus.

The Karpaz Peninsula, the long finger of land that extends to the northeast, is the wildest and most remote part of Cyprus. The roads improve only slowly as you travel further northeast, the villages become smaller and more widely separated, and the landscape becomes increasingly dominated by wild garigue — low scrubland of thyme, rosemary, and dwarf oak — with long views across the sea in both directions. The peninsula has a significant population of wild donkeys, descendants of domesticated animals that were abandoned when the Greek Cypriot population fled in 1974, and they wander freely across the roads and open country, apparently unbothered by vehicles. The beaches at the tip of the peninsula — particularly Golden Beach (Nankomi), a long undeveloped arc of golden sand backed by dunes — are among the most beautiful and least visited in the entire Mediterranean.

All UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Cyprus

Cyprus has three properties inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, representing three of the most significant categories of its extraordinary cultural heritage.

Painted Churches in the Troodos Region (1985, Extended 2001)

The Painted Churches in the Troodos Region were first inscribed in 1985, with ten churches nominated originally and the inscription subsequently extended in 2001 to include additional churches that had been further researched and documented. The property recognizes a group of Byzantine and post-Byzantine churches in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus, built between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, whose remarkable fresco programs represent a distinct and significant school of medieval Christian painting. The churches developed their distinctive style in relative isolation from the main centers of Byzantine art following the Crusader conquest of Cyprus in 1191, which brought Lusignan (French) rule to the island. Working under Latin political authority but for Orthodox Christian patrons, the painters developed a synthesis that incorporated elements of both Byzantine and Western Gothic artistic traditions while maintaining an essentially Byzantine theological and aesthetic framework.

The churches included in the World Heritage inscription are Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis at Kakopetria, Panagia Forviotissa (Asinou) near Nikitari, Panagia tou Araka at Lagoudera, the Monastery of Saint John Lampadistis at Kalopanagiotis, Panagia Podithou at Galata, Archangelos Michail at Pedoulas, Timios Stavros at Pelendri, Panagia Chrysaliniotissa near Nikitari, Stavros tou Agiasmati near Platanistasa, and Agios Sozomenos at Galata. Each of these churches contains fresco cycles of outstanding artistic quality, and together they constitute an irreplaceable document of medieval Cypriot religious culture and artistic achievement.

Beaches and Water Sports

Cyprus is blessed with more than 65 Blue Flag beaches — the international certification for water quality, safety, and environmental management — a remarkable number for an island of its size and a testament to the importance that the Republic of Cyprus places on the quality of its coastal environment. The variety of beaches is equally remarkable: long sandy arcs backed by resort development, intimate sandy coves hidden between limestone cliffs, pebble beaches of striking natural beauty, beaches with facilities that would suit families with small children, and remote wild beaches accessible only on foot or by boat.

Nissi Beach at Ayia Napa in the southeast is the most famous beach in Cyprus and one of the most famous in the entire Mediterranean — a compact crescent of fine white sand and brilliant turquoise water that fully justifies the magazine covers on which it regularly appears. In high season (July and August), it is also extremely crowded, with sun loungers edge to edge and music from the beach clubs audible from considerable distance. For those who seek the famous beach experience and are comfortable with the accompanying crowds and commercialization, Nissi Beach delivers completely. For those who prefer something quieter, it should be approached at dawn or in the shoulder season.

Fig Tree Bay at Protaras, just north of Ayia Napa, is another Blue Flag beach of outstanding quality — a slightly larger and somewhat calmer beach than Nissi, with excellent water clarity, facilities including sun loungers and parasols for hire, and a pleasant promenade of restaurants and cafes behind the beach. The name derives from a single large fig tree that grew on a tiny island just offshore — the island and the tree are still there.

Cape Greco National Forest Park, the headland between Ayia Napa and Protaras, offers a completely different coastal experience. The limestone cape drops vertically to the sea in a series of dramatic cliffs and sea caves, and the water in the coves and inlets around the cape is among the clearest and most spectacularly colored in Cyprus — the particular hue of blue-green that results when clear, deep Mediterranean water is seen through limestone in brilliant sunlight. Sea kayaking around the cape, exploring the sea caves and natural arches, is one of the most rewarding active experiences in Cyprus. The famous Kamara tou Koraka sea arch and the Konnos Bay beach (a compact sandy cove on the northern side of the cape with excellent swimming and snorkeling) are particular highlights.

Coral Bay at Paphos, a large semicircular bay with fine golden sand and calm, sheltered water, is the main beach resort area near Paphos and is developed with hotels, restaurants, and water sports facilities. The beach is pleasant without being spectacular, and the tourist infrastructure around it makes it comfortable and family-friendly. Several dive operators based at Coral Bay offer courses and boat dives to the sites around the Akamas Peninsula.

Lara Bay in the Akamas Peninsula is the most important turtle nesting beach in Cyprus, as described above, and its protected status means that access is restricted during the nesting season. Outside of this season, the beach — a long, wild, undeveloped arc of golden sand accessible via a rough track — is one of the finest swimming beaches in Cyprus, completely free from tourist development.

Petra tou Romiou, Aphrodite's Rock on the south coast between Paphos and Limassol, has a dramatic coastline of sea stacks and boulders where the water swirls and crashes in a way that makes swimming exciting but requires care. The underwater topography around the rocks is complex and interesting for snorkelers.

Diving in Cyprus is an activity of genuine quality, with the Zenobia wreck at Larnaca being the headline attraction, but the overall diving environment — water temperatures warm from May through November, visibility typically excellent, and a variety of dive sites ranging from shallow reefs suitable for beginners to deeper walls and caverns for experienced divers — making Cyprus one of the better diving destinations in the eastern Mediterranean. The Paphos area has several interesting reef and cave dive sites, and the Akamas Marine Protected Area offers some of the best unspoiled underwater scenery on the island.

Ayia Napa as a whole deserves additional mention as a destination beyond its famous beach. The town has developed since the 1990s into one of the major nightlife destinations in the Mediterranean, with a cluster of large nightclubs — some of them among the largest in Europe by capacity — that attract DJs of international reputation throughout the summer season. The Ayia Napa music festival scene, focused particularly on July and August, has been compared to Ibiza and Mykonos as a party destination. The combination of the best beaches in Cyprus with an internationally significant nightlife scene makes Ayia Napa a destination of genuine appeal to a specific kind of traveler, even as it represents a form of tourism that has little connection with the historical and cultural depths of the island.

Festivals and Events

The calendar of festivals and events in Cyprus reflects the island's deepest cultural commitments: the primacy of Orthodox Christian religious observance, the importance of the agricultural and wine-producing traditions, and the development of a contemporary cultural life that includes international festivals of serious ambition.

Easter is unquestionably the most important festival in the Cypriot calendar, both religiously and in terms of the depth of popular participation. The Holy Week that precedes Easter Sunday is marked by services and processions in every village and town on the island, building toward the climax of the Easter Saturday midnight service when, at the stroke of midnight, the priest carries a lighted candle out of the darkened church and the congregation lights their candles from his, creating a spreading wave of candlelight that gradually fills the churchyard and then moves out into the streets as families carry their lighted candles home. The Easter Sunday meal, preceded by the breaking of the Lenten fast, centers on a whole roasted lamb on a spit that is prepared from the small hours of the morning.

Limassol Carnival, held in the weeks before Lent in February or early March, is the largest and most elaborate carnival celebration in Cyprus and one of the most significant in the eastern Mediterranean. The main events include a Grand Carnival Parade with elaborate floats, a Flower Parade, and ten days of street parties, costume contests, and general festivity throughout the city. The carnival has roots in the Venetian period and has been celebrated continuously ever since, adapting its form over the centuries while maintaining its essential character as a period of license, costume, and public festivity.

The Kataklysmos Festival, unique to Cyprus, is held at Pentecost (fifty days after Easter) and is one of the most distinctive celebrations in the Cypriot calendar. The festival celebrates the biblical Flood and is associated with water in all its aspects — the sea, rain, purification, and new life. The main celebrations take place in coastal towns, particularly Larnaca, where the festival originated, with water games, boat races, singing competitions (particularly the tsiattista improvised verse singing), and a general atmosphere of waterfront festivity. The traditions associated with Kataklysmos have no direct parallel in any other part of the Greek-speaking world and may incorporate elements of much older, pre-Christian coastal celebrations.

The Paphos Aphrodite Festival, held each September in the courtyard of Paphos Castle with the harbor and the sea as a backdrop, is the premier cultural event in Cyprus — an outdoor opera festival that has been running since 1999 and consistently presents productions of international quality. Past productions have included works by Verdi, Puccini, Bellini, and Donizetti, performed by casts drawn from international opera houses with the open-air setting contributing an irreplaceable atmosphere to the experience. The Aphrodite Festival has established Paphos's credentials as a serious cultural destination in addition to its archaeological and natural attractions.

The Limassol Wine Festival, held each September in the Limassol Municipal Gardens, is a popular celebration of Cypriot wine with multiple stages, local food stalls, and the opportunity to taste wines from all the major Cypriot producers. The Commandaria Festival at Kolossi village celebrates the ancient wine with a more focused and historically conscious program.

The Ancient Greek Drama Festival at the Curium (Kourion) theater and at various other ancient theaters around the island offers performances of classical Greek drama in outdoor settings that have a historical resonance impossible to replicate in a modern theater. Productions are generally by professional Greek and Cypriot theater companies and the standard of presentation has improved significantly in recent years.

The Orange Festival at Fasoula village in the Limassol district, held each year in the spring when the orange harvest is at its peak, celebrates the citrus fruit that is one of the most important agricultural products of the area with local produce, traditional music, dancing, and the general village festivity that characterizes the smaller-scale local festivals that are found throughout Cyprus.