21 Super Creepy Pictures From Inside An Abandoned Airport
The Nicosia International Airport was once a bustling tourist hub. Today, it stands in ruins.
The remains of Avro Shackleton, a British long-range maritime patrol aircraft, at the abandoned Nicosia International Airport.
The main terminal stands decaying inside the buffer zone on the southern, Greek side of the divided city in Nicosia, Cyprus.
The Nicosia International Airport on the island of Cyprus was once a bustling hub for the region's tourist industry. It was built in the 1930s and served as a vital airstrip for allied bombers during the second World War. In 1974, following the Cypriot coup d'état and the ensuing Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the airport was abandoned. Nature began to slowly retake the airfield as brush and trees enveloped airplanes left on the runway, and flocks of birds took up residence in what were once its terminals. Today, the facilities at the Nicosia International Airport lay in ruins, and the remaining usable structures are used mainly as the headquarters for the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
Here is a haunting look at what a modern airport looks like after returning to nature.
The passenger departure area is coated with bird feces.
The arrival terminal at Nicosia International Airport.
Images of airplanes decorate a wall.
Advertising billboards are left tattered and destroyed.
Bird droppings cover a "no exit" sign in Greek.
Droppings cover seats in the departure lounge near a duty free shop.
Abandoned ticket counters decay inside the terminal building.
A sign reading "staff car park" is faded and covered with rust.
A view from the broken windows of a control tower for the runway.
The damaged control tower is left in ruins.
Light shines through the windows inside the empty main hall and its cafe.
A sign reading "tipping porters not allowed" is left faded with rust.
A bird flies past an advertising billboard.
Steel barrels litter the tarmac of the abandoned Nicosia airport.
A abandoned and decaying Cyprus Airways passenger plane sits on the runway.
The shell of an airplane sits on the runway, slowly rusting.
Remains of an Avro Shackleton aircraft is reclaimed by brush and wilderness.
A stairway covered in barbed wire leads to the former visitors restaurant and terrace.
An advertising billboard from the 1970s remains intact in the airport's terminal building.
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Gabriel H. Sanchez is the Senior Photo Essay Editor for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York City.
Contact Gabriel H. Sanchez at gabriel.sanchez@buzzfeed.com.
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