what a funtastically fascinating country! i had a layover here on the way from the balkans to isreal when starting medical school. the island of cyprus is dominated by the e.u. member state of the same name, but the northern third is a de facto independent state called the turkish republic of northern cyprus (turkey is the only country in the world that recognizes its independence). because cyprus and greece are pretty tight, the “turkish occupation” of the north throws a monkey wrench into the already strained relationship between greece and turkey (indeed, greece’s animosity is one big reason that turkey can’t seem to get into the european union). we learned all about this stuff when i was on the middle east studies program. anyways, as i was looking at the map as we were landing in larnaca, i realized that it wasn’t even too far to north cyprus. i thought “wouldn’t it be cool to go there if i could!” so i found some free internet and discovered that indeed, starting in 2008 it had become possible to cross the u.n. patrolled buffer zone in the divided capital of cyprus, nicosia!
found myself a shuttle to nicosia (also known as lefkosia), and a couple of hours after landing i was in north cyprus! and wow, talk about a city divided. from south to north you go from christian to muslim; white people to brown; greek language to turkish; crowds of tourists to abandoned streets; mcdonalds and starbucks to falafel places. i didn’t really know what i was looking for, if anything, but i chanced upon this most amazing mosque. they had taken a huge ancient stone cathedral (it had very distinctive western style arches and stained glass windows), and converted it into a mosque by removing all the christian references and building two huge stone minarets on either side. usually mosques are built oriented toward mecca, but of course this one didn’t have that orientation initially, so the mihrab (the depression in the wall at the front of the mosque) was carved into a huge chunk of rock that they had to orient diagonally inside the building. clearly i’m pretty nerdy about this stuff, but it was one of the most interesting things i’ve seen in a long time. and by the way, if you’re thinking “what gives those muslims the right,” christians have been known to convert mosques into churches as well. so that was my favorite sighting of the day. caught a bus back to larnaca, where there was a beautiful swimming beach and church with the grave of lazarus of biblical fame (who moved to cyprus after he was raised from the dead by Christ), and a 6 am flight to israel, to start medical school!
