Located almost in the centre of Nicosia, Ledra Street is one of the main shopping streets of the city. It is just over one kilometre long, yet it is located in two states at once - the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus. The street was named after an ancient city that once stood on the site where Nicosia was later built.
Most of Ledra, about 800 metres, is in the Greek part of the island, with about 150 metres in Turkish territory. The remaining 70 metres is a buffer zone belonging to no one, which is currently occupied by UN peacekeeping troops. The military have set up their headquarters in the famous Ledra Hotel. Surprisingly, but originally their task was to protect the residents of the Turkish part of the island from terrorist attacks by Greek Cypriots, which became more frequent in the middle of the last century. At that time Ledra was even called "dead mile" because of the constant bloody battles.
Nowadays Ledra is safe and fully pedestrianised - you can stroll along it, relax on benches and shop in local shops and kiosks.
Up until recently, the street was divided by a barricade as much as three metres wide. But in 2008 Ledra was opened, which was a landmark event for the island, as it was another step towards establishing a dialogue between the two states. Now, citizens of the southern part of the island only need to show their documents to cross the border, while Turkish Cypriots still have to go through the full procedure up to the visa stamp in their passports.
