The lack of electricity was especially true in the Turkish Cypriot villages found here. Intercommunal fighting prevented the Electricity Board from carrying out the necessary work. I have read numerous accounts on who was to blame for this, and consequently have no idea what the actual truth of the matter was. But this is why the villages remained unoccupied when the TC population were moved to the illegally occupied area in the North, and the GC population came south; the infrastructure was inadequate.

The thing I find weird about Foinikas is that there are still road signs pointing to the village. Some of the houses even have house numbers painted on the front. I wonder what would happen if you sent a letter to one of them?

Occasionally the local army base will use the village in its training exercises. If you fly a drone, you should be aware of this army base. You are allowed to fly the drone around the village itself, but if you go too high over the hills you will be in a no-go zone. This also applies to a lot of the reservoir closer to the dam, so check the official maps before flying.

We've published numerous films on Foinikas. Our latest one shows us driving around the buildings here. I am able to do this because I know where the old road is that is now covered in vegetation. If you don't know where it is, and just drive randomly, you will run the risk of hitting rocks, barbed wire or even finding a hole. So don't try our route yourself.

You can get a similar view to this standing at the top of the small hill behind the village.