Travel Guide Karmi – Karaman

Situated 300 meters above sea level, Karmi enjoys a beautiful, but rather isolated panorama, and is home to the famous medieval castle of Saint-Hilarion. Although the castle can be reached by road from Kyrenia, it is only linked to the village itself by a (beautiful) hiking trail. Karmi also has the distinction of being the only village in the northern zone to be (almost) exclusively populated by Westerners, mainly British and German. In 1982, the new local authorities invited foreigners to move into the houses abandoned by the Greek Cypriot inhabitants (around 500 in 1973). The first to respond were mostly hippies looking for cheap shacks to renovate. However, not all was peace and love. Some made fortunes building luxury villas, others set up pubs. Despite all this, Karmi retains its reputation as a "bohemian village". Today, the former babas cool are gray-haired about something else: in the event of the island's reunification, they will no doubt have to return their land and pretty houses to their true Greek Cypriot owners.