Beach tourism has not proved sustainable everywhere: Varosia, south of Famagusta in Cyprus, was one of the first centres of tourism in the Mediterranean during the rise of mass tourism of the 1960s and '70s. There were a total of 45 hotels with 10 000 beds, 60 apartment hotels, 99 recreation centres, 21 banks, 24 theatres and cinemas and about 3000 small and large shops. In 1974, an additional 380 buildings were under construction. During the invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974, the Turkish military occupied the city and declared the area prohibited. It has since remained a restricted area. Since then, Varosia has joined the ranks of Pripyat outside of Chernobyl or the Japanese island of Hashima as one of the world‘s most spectacular ghost towns. But it is a backdrop reserved for the Turkish military. Even the UN, who controls the buffer zone between the occupied north and the south of Cyprus, may only access the area with special permission. Filming is strictly prohibited. These images also had their price: A three-hour interrogation by the Turkish-Cypriotic secret police. An image of the coastline that showed the surf crashing against kilometres of hotel ruins on the beach had to be removed.