Northern Cyprus is much more spacious than the South

Roman Mosaics in an Arch

Sketch of the Ghost Town

Today we went to the ancient city of Salamis in Northern Cyprus. This is where the apostles Paul and Barnabas landed when they came to Cyprus for their first missionary journey. It was a bustling Roman city and the ruins speak of its former glory. We all went to the ampitheater and prayed for the island and for reconciliation. Since a war in the 1970s the island has been seperated by a wall into the Turkish-speaking North and the Greek-speaking South, even today people remember the traumas. There is no war anymore, but the wall remains. But the prime ministers of both sides are negotiating peace right now, this is very encouraging!

We also saw a ghost town on the coast nearby, which is under Turkish military control. It has been abandoned since the 1970s, making it a concrete ruin. It is strictly forbidden to take pictures of it, but I managed to draw a picture of the city. The site was quite bizzare: A military zone right next to a lively beach. The beach was completely deserted a year ago, but apparently things have changed quickly.