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Comment by kweks | Hacker News Reader

Politics aside, Famagusta is quite fascinating. There are relatively few recent photos online, mainly due to the army presence and "shoot on sight" warnings.

Never the less, I visited a few years ago. Very strange to see in real life the "nature takes over the cities" so often imagined in films.

http://www.ninjito.com/_2015-04-14-Varosha

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That would indeed be amazing to see, such a time capsule. They should really make it a museum. The world doesn't need another beach resort, but a view on the past would be amazing.

I see you even slept there! Did you have someone keeping watch? It must have been a once in a lifetime trip!

Do they really shoot on sight? I really doubt that. But I'm sure you'd have a really uncomfortable time at a Turkish police station when caught.

There is significant military presence around and inside the base, regular patrols, watch towers, cameras and IR walls. Not sure if they shoot on sight, because we managed to avoid being seen. I imagine that it's less important strategically now than before, but it was definitely one of the more stressful infiltrations.

How did you manage to visit? I love abandoned cities and would like to see it, but would slightly prefer to not get shot.

I was in the area last year. You can take a taxi from the Greek side and they will give you a tour of the new city and an archaeological site. The driver was originally from a village not far from there and knew the parts. I doubt you can go in the old parts (there are fences, roadblocks and guards) but there’s a beach from which you have a good view. The closest buildings are only a few meters away. I didn’t take any photos. As a Greek I was a little apprehensive of going there, but most of my Cypriot friends have no problems visiting or driving through the occupied parts.

There's the town and new city, and the closed part. We were in the closed part. Honestly, the beach view is fairly representative of what is inside (so unless you a highly motivated, the trip inside might not be worth the risk)

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