3 Best Sights in Cyprus

The "Great Inn," built in 1572, used to accommodate travelers during the Ottoman Empire until it became a prison in 1893. The largest caravansarai on the island, it has been sensitively restored. Today the structure houses artisans, craft shops, and restaurants, some of which spill out into the lovely central courtyard, and it is often a venue for concerts and dance performances.

Otherwise known as Pyli Ammochostou, the Famagusta Gate is now also used as a cultural center for screenings and exhibitions, as a lecture hall, and as a theater. One of three gates into the city, the others are the Paphos Gate at the western end and the Kyrenia Gate in the Turkish occupied north. During the Ottoman rule it is said that Turks and Muslims could ride on horseback through the gates while everyone else had to walk.

Near the Girne Gate is the Mevlevi Tekke Museum, the former home of the Mevlevi, a Sufi order. The Tekke was a place for spiritual reflection and music and dance were central to the religion of the Mevlevi followers; they became known as the Whirling Dervishes due to their practice of continuously revolving as a form of remembrance to God. The building now includes photographs of the dervishes, household objects used by them, and the tombs of 16 Mevlevi sheiks.