Nicosia was split like an apple becoming two capitals of two enemy states.

 

The buffer zone, "Green Line" leaves a gap in the centre of town that has become a no man's land, where only UNFICYP soldiers can pass. Time itself has stopped, creating a new ecosystem where the centre of the capital resembles a ghost town, weeds have overtaken the asphalt, the walls and windows of the houses have begun a continuous degradation and objects have remained motionless for decades. The streets talk and the traces of the shots on the walls whisper to us how the battles took place. The barricades that were never conquered contain the same sand with which the soldiers hastily filled them that summer. On both sides of the look-out posts and lines of defence, the flags of the two opponents fly, both visible to its neighbour, the Turkish one by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Greek one opposite, next to the one of Cyprus.

 

The old Ledra Hotel is in the buffer zone,it was  the most luxurious in the city in seventies, where the Cypriot army resisted the stroke of the Turkish army, and where subsequently were held the peace agreements and was drawn the green line and the borders of the new two countries.

 

The Ledra hotel is now the headquarter for the british UN soldiers who patrolling inside the buffer zone.