Cyprus-Forum.com

[Greekster91]

man i wish i could be in cyprus now, hey if you guys go, can you post some pics, thanks

[oranos64]

bigdog, oranos64 is the man you want to see, he's been everywhere mate.

YEP ...I WAS THERE 4 WEEKS AGO ...the place is a dump ..beach is fine ..but its a dangerous place glass everywhere buildings collapsed or immeniant catagories ...overgrown with trees ,shrubs ,.lots of snakes and other animals ...U.N brought in some consultants ....most of the buildings will need to be brought down ...and rebuilt ..the whole area from foundations to rebuilding will be a nightmare. ill post some pictures on the forum in a couple of weeks when i get my pc back

to summarise we are talking a good billion in costs for the rebuilding of infrastructure to a good standard ...
as for larnaca is rebuilding itself but still a shite hole - no real beaches ...mickey mouse hotels ...no real car parks ...run a mickey mouse mayor ,...the forgotten city of cyprus ....grad rebuild on the way ...

i think most of locals need a personality by pass and a lesson in customer service along the seafront

Is it true about cars still left in showrooms ? Some people I have spoken to have said this and others have said that everything is gone . I have been told something similar about Nicosia .

where larnaca ? hahahahha joke ...mate ...there are bits everywhere ,.,i saw a collection of jeeps ...clothing stores ...some really fine art work ...i mean it was like the south of france them times ... it is like the place was abandon in minutes not surprising as the Turks bombed the area via air and ships so people fled quickly ...

there is a elavator hanging out of the hotels ...apparently it was left that way ..a missle hit the hotel and the child inside fell to his death ...the said buiding will fall on its on ...structure is badly damaged like most of them from heavy bombing

there is a cluster of containers i am told in the small docks of mercedes cars and some nice car equipement from volvo ....

ill try to post some pictures ...but in general i am not aloud in case any one of you uses the images to venture there ...i was told some night burglers died there in 90s ,their are mines ,grenades there and most of the buildings are very badly damaged over time ...apparently both Turkish cyp thieves and locals leaving stole everything from door frames to windows over the past 30 years

[oranos64]

Oranos,

The nightmare you saw is heaven to civil engineering companies! I wish I could get a pie of the demolition work when Famagusta gets going as a project. Just imagine how many professions and businesses will be brought in- the international city planners who will be asked to redraw the map of the city to avoid past planning blunders, the infrastructure consultants who will plan the drains, bio treatment plans, power lines, phone and data lines and a zillion other things that go into a city of 40 000 inhabitants plus hotels etc.

In viw of the above your figure of 1 billion pounds sounds low. I heard 5 billion and even that sounds like a conservative estimate. Sometimes one gets the impression that us Famagustians who want to return do not exactly understand what we will face when we get there.

You mentioned animals- what kind of animals did you see when you were there? It is my special interest that is why I ask. So many people visited and not one has given an account of the wildlife in the city now.

the guys i spoke to were engineers ... i agree it will cost more ..like you they were talking about infrastructure ...drains ,knocking staff down ...electricity ,water etc

animals to be honest ,.,,its more dangerous than you think ....the animals there obiously cant find much food ...the predator is the dominat ...so rats are eaten by the millions of snakes ...cats some wild dogs ... it stinks there ...
some badgers ,,,but most of what i saw was wild dangerous animals

sadly we shot a viper ....really huge and hissing madly ...

some wild dogs we found ....some other things ..but legally cant talk about it ....lets just say the locals were fighting to get out !!!

[Nikitas]

Greekster

I saw reveiews of the article on Google. It was fascinating.

I have architect friends here in Athens who would love to get a chance to examine the buildings in Famagusta to see how the elements and especially salt sea air affect steel reinforced concrete when it is left without any maintenance. They also say that once the steel inside the concrete degenerates due to corrosion there is no saving the building.

So from many scientific points of view Famagusta would be a hell of a subject to study and document.

I was just making a quick calculation, 40 000 people means 10 000 dwellings, at 150 000 per dwelling that comes to 1.5 billion just for housing. Add the expesnive stuff like roads etc and we are talking major money. My bet is that the Turks want assurances that they will share in the booty before they return the city. For them it would solve a major part of their revenue problem.

[bigdog]

Hope you can post some pics Oranos .
Thanks for the imformation everyone , time for bed now . Cheers

[humanist]

Greester the reality is Cypriots have lost sight of what really matters. And that is peace and respect for each other as individual and our country. We have't the ability to feel united as a people and create a country where Cypriots live. There is more alliagence to Greece/ Turkey respectively than there is to being Cypriot. 34 years later we are talking of deals as oposed to talking creation. There are only a handful of people open minded enough to do just that.

[oranos64]

Greekster

I saw reveiews of the article on Google. It was fascinating.

I have architect friends here in Athens who would love to get a chance to examine the buildings in Famagusta to see how the elements and especially salt sea air affect steel reinforced concrete when it is left without any maintenance. They also say that once the steel inside the concrete degenerates due to corrosion there is no saving the building.

So from many scientific points of view Famagusta would be a hell of a subject to study and document.

I was just making a quick calculation, 40 000 people means 10 000 dwellings, at 150 000 per dwelling that comes to 1.5 billion just for housing. Add the expesnive stuff like roads etc and we are talking major money. My bet is that the Turks want assurances that they will share in the booty before they return the city. For them it would solve a major part of their revenue problem.

the turks want a share in everything ...but i tell you this ...the buildings are really bad mate ...the worry is if there was a earth quake a major one (thera /san irine is due in the next five years) we could have problems there ..

the area will be a gold mine ...but my worry is it will be eaten up by greed and corruption ..imagine the local gangsters ,the local rip offs , the brothel owners moving up there *look at paphos last 3 years).....very sad ...my family have a lot of land their ,...no way would i sell it

[oranos64]

Greester the reality is Cypriots have lost sight of what really matters. And that is peace and respect for each other as individual and our country. We have't the ability to feel united as a people and create a country where Cypriots live. There is more alliagence to Greece/ Turkey respectively than there is to being Cypriot. 34 years later we are talking of deals as oposed to talking creation. There are only a handful of people open minded enough to do just that.

ideals make a world a better place ...but sometimes we need to come down to earth and see the world as a reality ...we moved to talking about the cost of rebuilding the area ...because that is what we need to do there ..whats the point of having 9 kilo metres of sand untouched

althougth i must admit ...i am glad to see some parts of the TC side are untouched and unspoilt

[T_C]

I know one man who has been inside the city, crawled past the UN and Turkish guarfds seceral times to go to his house to recover some important papers he had hidden there.

His descriptions of how nature reclaims a man made environment are fascinating. The place is crawling with insects, rodents, reptiles and lots of feral cats and dogs. Trees and shrubs are growing through the cracks n the streets. It sounds fascinating froma biological and ecological point of view.

Thanks Nikitas
That what was crossing my mind when looking in from outside . In certain places the fences look so easy to get past if you put your mind to it . I am NOT suggesting for a moment that anyone should do this because of the obvious dangers but as you say I find it fascinating what it must be like in there after so long .

I did my military right next to Marash and the generals told me how theres hotels that were booked upto the year 2000!!!!!! Sophia Lauren also has a home there...

You must have got curious , always been my downfall .

Do the UN still patrol inside the city ?

I was trust me. We were even told that we could get permission to go in there for our last day but not that many of my friends were interested.

Theres still a few massive cranes in Marash from all those years ago.

I also saw a picture of a car showroom in a car magazine a few years ago. I can't remember how the photographer got in there but the article was about old cars and the pictures were quite surreal. It looked like horror movie set. There was dust and cob webs everywhere...

I want to go into Makarios' house in Kyrenia more than anything! I'd love to see what he has in there...apparently it's been left untouched and it's under military control.

[oranos64]

YEAP AND YEAP AND TRUE ...LIKE A STEVEN KING MOVIE ....