Varosha Ghost Town

From ChatGPT:

Varosha is a sealed-off district on the coast of Famagusta, Cyprus, frozen in time after being abruptly abandoned in the 1970s after the Turkish military arrived and turned it into a heavily militarized ghost town. Once a busy resort area filled with hotels, apartment blocks, shops, and beachfront streets, it now stands empty, slowly deteriorating behind barriers.

The area is made up of rows of high-rise hotels, residential buildings, and commercial structures, many still clearly showing their original purpose. Balconies face the sea, storefront signs remain in place, and entire streets sit silent, with no signs of regular human activity. Inside the buildings, furniture, fixtures, and everyday objects can still be seen through broken windows or open facades, left exactly where they were decades ago.

Nature has steadily reclaimed the space. Plants grow out of sidewalks, vines crawl up concrete walls, and trees have taken root inside collapsed interiors. Salt air, sun, and weather have heavily worn the structures, leaving exposed rebar, shattered glass, and peeling paint throughout the district.

Walking through Varosha feels less like exploring ruins and more like moving through a paused city. There’s no single focal point—just repeating blocks of abandoned life, stretching along the coastline. The beach itself lies empty, contrasting sharply with the dense, decaying buildings behind it.

Today, Varosha remains one of the largest abandoned urban areas in the world—quiet, unsettling, and untouched—standing as a place where time stopped, but decay never did.

Crazy enough, they had promised that people would return to their homes eventually. This never happened, obviously. There was a lot of outrage from the Greek Cypriots when they announced they'd open it for tourism, it is kind of disgusting considering they have been illegaly occupying the island since then. Free Cyprus!