Famagusta was founded in the 3rd century BC by Ptolemy Philadelphus of Egypt, though it was overshadowed by Salamis to the north.
After Salamis was abandoned in AD648, it grew in importance, but didn't really flourish until the fall of Acre in 1291, when Christians
fled from the Holy Land took refuge here. Since then it has come under the rule of the Genoese, the Venetians, the Ottomans, after which
it began to decay. The area flourished again in the early 1960s due to the influx of tourists. The 1974 invasion by the Turkish army
forced Famagusta into the restricted border zone, and parts of the city remain to this day completely deserted and uninhabited.

The Old Town is encircled by huge defence walls erected by the Venetians, who felt threatened by the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into
the eastern Mediterranean. The walls are 15m high and up to 8m thick, reinforced with 15 bastions. The two gates leading into the city
are the Land Gate and the Sea Gate, constructed in 1496.