The capital city of North Cyprus is Lefkoşa (Nicosia), which is located right in the heart of Cyprus Island. One part of the city belongs to the Greek Cypriots and the other to the Turkish Cypriots. The uniqueness of this city is that the only one capital city in the world, which is still divided into two parts. The old Lefkoşa has a lot of narrow streets with buildings which is belong to the different eras and build according to the architectural styles of their life-time. In our days the new offices, banks and ministries are mostly occupied them. The mostly tourists are visiting Lefkoşa, because they want to have some changes during their holidays on the sea and see the historical sights of the Island Capital City Lefkoşa. The capital city Lefkoşa will always attract a huge amount of tourists, because of the great historical past of Cyprus Island's.

All historical sites which have a touristic interest are mostly grouped in the centre of the city, on the territory of ancient Lefkoşa walled-city. Once upon a time this walled-city was an impressive Venetian fortress. In ancient times Lefkoşa long time was in the shadow of the other big and more famous cities in Cyprus such as Salamis, Amathus, Kition. 

Even in the Bronze ages the first people’s settlements in the area of Lefkoşa were mainly along the river Pedias. The first inhabitancies became known as Ledra and the first time were mentioned in Assyrian documents of 7th century B.C.. That was a document of enumerating of the people of Cyprus, who paid tribute to the Assyrian Kings. Later Ledra become dependent to the Salamis Kings. After that Ledra was destroyed during the war between the generals of Alexander Macedon for the rights to have Cyprus. In 208 B.C. the King Ptolemy rebuilt Ledra in to the city named Nicosia. He called the newly rebuilt city – Lefkoteon, which means the Nicosia city.

Lefkoteon was standing along the riverbank Pedias which was overflowing from the mountains and every spring all the town urban area was flooded. The river flooded water did this area very fertile. An especially good was growing the Poplar trees. In Greek language Poplar tree will be Lefkon. From this the name of Lefkoteon was given to the town as the city was full of Poplar trees. During the Roma Empire the pronunciation of the city name change and Lefkoteon start to be called as Lefkosia. From that period everyone forget that the city was called once upon a time Lefkoteon. 

Under the rule of the French kings from dynasty of de Lusignan, the city was named in the French manner and starts to be pronounced as Nicosia. At the same time the city walls were fortify and the fortress became stronger and impregnable. Moreover, in this time are also was build numerous numbers of churches and palaces. According to the old archival documents we can see that the majority of the Nicosia inhabitants were rich and they help to build all the palaces and churches in Nicosia. 

In the time of dynasty de Lusignan the ethnic composition of the inhabitants of Nicosia were changed. As a consequence, the city and lifestyle have been changed from Greek and became more as Italian city. In those days in Nicosia (Lefkoşa) many Catholic churches was built, but also the Greek Orthodox Church was preserved or reconstructed. 

In the time of the power of Venetians the city of Nicosia has become more like a fortress city, which was mainly used as for the defence of Cyprus Island. The Venetians rebuilt the fortress and strengthened it. The riverbank of Pedias was divided into two parts and it surrounded all the walls of the fortress city. From this time the Nicosia city in Cyprus became as an example of inaccessibility and invincibility. 

During the war between Venetians and Turkish in Cyprus, the Ottoman Empire won. Turkish troops won, because during the fortress storming the Armenian opened the gate for the Turkish troops to come in. In the Ottoman period in Lefkoşa (Nicosia) were build many traditional architectural complexes in Eastern style, and it again changed the face and look of the city. Lefkoşa become more look like as all the cities of the Levant area, where the Gothic style is combined with Eastern architecture.

The main attractions around the town of Lefkoşa (Nicosia), which is recommended to visit and see:

1. The Kyrenia Gate 

2. The Turkish Cypriots national struggle Museum 

3. Monastery of dancing Dervish 

4. Ataturk Square 

5. Arab Ahmet Pasha Mosque 

6. The Mevlevi Tekke Musium 

7. Buyuk Hamam - Old Turkish baths 

8. Buyuk Han Caravan Saray 

9. Sultan Selim Mosque (St. Sophia Cathedral) 

10. Historic buildings of Nicosia , which has an architectural interest for the tourist.