Northern Cyprus: Lefkosa/Nicosia Under Construction

Somehow I don't think we're in Gaziantep any more. Nope. We're in Northern Cyprus.

This was our hotel. One window in our room was just to the left of the Turkish flag -- the white one is the flag of Northern Cyprus. At one point we had the window open and half the flag blew into our room. Northern Cyprus is a country to itself, but Turkey is the only country in the world that recognizes it. Turks go there to gamble -- lots of casinos -- and there are lots of expats living in towns along the northern coast. I was told that non-natives now outnumber natives.

We actually arrived after midnight. One evening in the damp cold month of February we learned that there were direct cheap flights from Gaziantep to Northern Cyprus. Three of the American teachers had made a visa run there in early December and reported good things. So my friend Judy, another colleague Jeremy and I booked a flight for the three-day weekend we had in April. Judy subsequently took a job as a newspaper editor in the Cayman Islands, so by the time travel day arrived it was just Jeremy and I.

This was the view from our window looking south. The Mediterranean is on the other side of those mountains. If you blow up this photo, you might see the Northern Cyprus flag on the mountains.

This is the other thing you saw from our window, and it really dominates the skyline of Lefkosa, at least on the Turkish side. It is Selimiye mosque, formerly St. Sophia's cathedral. It was built between 1209 and 1226. Human occupation of Cyprus goes back to 8500 BC and just about every major empire took turns occupying at least part of it. In more recent history Richard the Lionhearted obtained possession of Cyprus in 1189 during the Crusades . He sold it to the Knights Templar, who held it for a while and then sold it back to him. He then gave it to Guy de Lusignan who had lost his throne in Jerusalem, thus beginning the Frankish dynasty that lasted until 1489 when the Venetians took control. The last colonial rulers were the British, so everyone drives on the left side of the road, the sockets don't accept EU standard plugs, and you drink tea out of cups and not glasses.


The church, a classic gothic cathedral complete with flying buttresses and gothic arches, was damaged by several earthquakes, but what is really disturbing to the eye are the two minarets that take the place of the traditional gothic towers.

Not far from the cathedral/mosque is a recently renovated Han ( Büyük Han) that has largely been given over to local artisans. One traditional Cypriot craft was quite interesting. Woman raise silkworms on the island. However, instead of unwinding their cocoons for the silk thread, the cut the cocoons in pieces and use them to construct beautiful pictures. It has the feel of pictures made from shells. Quite lovely.

From the Han we went to the tourist information center which is in an old town gate in the city wall built by the Venetians. From this office we embarked on a walking tour. The center city of Lekosa really got run down. Now there is a lot of renovation going on and attempt to create sites of interest for tourists. There is a blue line walking tour; an eight-inch blue line has been painted through the city. It takes you to most of the points of interest -- some are more interesting than others.

The first stop was the dervish museum. At one time the Sufi order was wide spread, and almost every city had a Sufi lodge. Konya was the center of Sufism, but now it's all but disappeared except for Konya and Istanbul. However, there are dervish museums everywhere.

One of the most interesting sights was the our stroll through the Samanbahçe
neighborhood. It was built in the early 1900s as a "social housing" project. The buildings are all single story with red tile roofs. At the intersections there are water fountains, probably once the source of water for the area. Above is a man pushing a cart of lemons through the neighborhood. People did come out of their houses and buy from him. Frankly, it looked like a very nice place to live.

Actually the map of the tour was posted periodically along the way. It took a while for us to realize that the dividing like between the Greek and Turkish sides of the island ran right through the center of town. We kept trying to find a church we could see from our window but kept running into roadblocks. Then we got to the actual crossing point and we figured it out.


Of course the tour took us back to Selimiye Mosque and the Grand Han, as well as to the former St. Luke's church which has been turned into a workshop for artisans and the former St. Catherine's which was all locked up. The Armenian church and monastery is under renovation. And, in fact, it did look like there were actually people working there. However, there was a sign in front of the project listing the support fro the project. It wasn't local. It all comes from NGOs outside Northern Cyprus. We also walked past another church which had been converted into a workshop space for artisans. Toward the end of our day following the Blue Line tour, we we spent a bit of time in a so-called lapidary museum. It was mostly fragments of columns, friezes or steles, which are in abundance throughout Turkey -- not too interesting.

That evening we decided to try a restaurant from a guidebook we had on Northern Cyprus. It was located outside the central city, that is the part of the city inside the old city walls. The old city is quite dilapidated. It's clear that the are involved in many restoration projects and activities to make it more appealing to tourists. However, once you leave the old city, the picture changes completely. There are some nice residential streets, and the street on which the restaurant was located the were many chic stores, lots of foot traffic and unbelievable car traffic. Things were really hopping.

We eventually found the restaurant. There was one family eating on a covered porch at the back. Otherwise no one was there. We mentioned that we wanted some dinner. He said they didn't have dinner, just mezes, a collection of hors d'oeuvres --something like Spanish tapas.

While we wondered where all the other people were, we knew you could easily make a meal off mezes, so we said okay. He then started bringing plate after plate, at least a dozen appetizers with a big bowl of the traditional tomato, cucumber and parsley salad and pita bread. It was clear we'd have more than enough to eat. However, after a few moments, more food appeared. There were the little meatballs that we dipped in a batter and then fried. Then kebaps and grilled meat. There seemed to be no end. I just couldn't keep eating. And by the time they brought the grilled chicken breast, which I couldn't even touch, the restaurant had filled up. We certainly needed the long walk home.

We had planned to bus over to the coast the next morning. However, we decided we'd try to take a look at the Greek side of Lefkosa/Nicosia. We'd seen the border crossing the day before only a few minutes from our hotel. After we were assured that it would be no problem returning, we took the plunge and crossed over. It was like going through some sort of time warp. You were instantly in what felt like a modern European city.