Things to do in Nicosia

Landmark · Old Town, within the walls

The pedestrian crossing point through the UN buffer zone, opened in 2008, linking the two halves of the last divided capital in Europe.

Local tip: Take your passport or residence card. It is a five-minute walk and a genuinely strange one — the shopping street simply stops, then resumes on the other side in Turkish.

Landmark · Ringing the Old Town

A complete sixteenth-century star fort ringing the old city, with eleven bastions and three original gates.

Local tip: Famagusta Gate is now a cultural centre and the best-preserved of the three. Walk the moat gardens in the early evening — the bastion tips are where residents actually sit.

Culture · Just outside the walls

The island's principal archaeological museum, covering nine thousand years from the neolithic to the Roman period.

Local tip: The room of two thousand terracotta votive figures from Agia Irini, arranged as they were found, is worth the visit on its own.

Neighborhood · Within the walls

Restored Ottoman-era lanes of craft shops, tavernas and courtyard houses in the old city.

Local tip: The touristy part is small. Walk east into Chrysaliniotissa and Kaimakli instead, where the same architecture is lived in rather than restored for visitors.

Nature · South-east of the centre

Eight hundred hectares of eucalyptus and pine with a lake, running trails and the city's main green lung.

Local tip: This is where Nicosia runs and cycles, and in a city with no coastline it does a lot of work. Go early — by ten in July it is unusable.

Culture · Eastern Old Town, against the buffer zone

A quiet quarter of Ottoman houses, small workshops and one of the oldest churches in the walled city, backing onto the buffer zone.

Local tip: Almost nobody comes here, and it is the most atmospheric part of Nicosia. Streets simply end at sandbags and oil drums, which tells you more about the city than any museum.