Mediterranean’s ‘Best Beach’ a Ghost Town Since 1974

FAMAGUSTA, Cyprus — Beyond a wilderness of parched weeds, crumbling buildings and roads amputated by tangles of razor wire, a long line of multistory hotels basks in the east Mediterranean sun.

Behind it, the turquoise sea glistens, rolling softly onto a five-mile stretch of golden sand.

In July, places like this around the Mediterranean are normally crowded with thousands of tourists. Yet a nearby beach, once visited by the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren and Paul Newman, is different.

At the height of the tourist season, and every other season for the last 41 years, this beach is deserted.

In 1974, after a decade of conflict in Cyprus between its Greek Cypriot majority and Turkish Cypriot minority, Turkey invaded Cyprus.

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