Cyprus is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean, it’s the third-largest and third-most populous island in the Mediterranean, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Because of its strategic location in the middle east, it was occupied by major powers for centuries till the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in the early 1900s. Which makes Cyprus rich in history, art, culture and a must-visit tourist destination in the Mediterranean countries.
What most people don’t know about Cyprus is it’s partitioned into two parts: South Cyprus (Greek Cypriots) member of European Union and North Cyprus (Turkish Cypriots) known as Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti - KKTC / Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Both share the same capital Nicosia / Lefkosia, the last divided city in the world. Apart from the different currency, phone numbers and addressing both sides have some things in common and have some difference.
I live in the north; the Turkish part of Cyprus and I am a current student of Eastern Mediterranean University which is one top university in Turkey including my friends who joined the first meet up. Our initial plan was to join the university orientation team and have our meetup but due to bad weather report in Nicosia on Saturday, 21st February 2020, the university cancelled the orientation until further notice. Since this was our first meetup organized meetup, we couldn’t cancel the event then decided to quickly to change the venue to our city Famagusta where our university is located.
Meet our team: Ismaila Barry @Istobastos 2nd Semester Architecture Student, Abdulrahman Abdul 7th Semester Mechanical Engineering, Nabiha Sowe 2nd Semester International Trade and Business,
Alieu Casseh @Alieucasseh 4th Semester Mechanical Engineering, Omar Jain 2nd Semester, Information Technology, Mariam Ceesay @Mariam_cee 4th Semester Nursing, Sheriff A.W Njie 4th Semester Management Information System, Alassan Kah @Alassankah 1st Semester
PR and Advertising, Ousman Camara 2nd Semester
Information Technology, Mamour Njie 4th semester Architecture, Alpha Amadou Sumareh (self) 3rd Semester Information Technology.
We started our day at the university campus then joined the school bus which took us to Famagusta Old City also known as Famagusta Walled City. It was founded by Egyptian king Ptolemy II Philadelphus in the 3rd century B.C, The Famagusta village was then called Arsinoe after Queen Arsinoe II. Development of the city started in the 12th Century under Lusignan rule, during this period the high city walls were built. The Venetians fortified the city’s walls, making them 50 feet thick in some places after taking control in the 15th Century. Famagusta citadel walls are three kilometres long with 15 bastions.
After 15 minutes’ walk between the fortified walls and city, we took a break and did about 15 minutes presentation on local Guide Education. Since it was outdoor, we printed some pages in A3 format then presented in a park seating style which had GMB and I was wondering if that meant Google My Business. We continued walking 
for almost 2 kilometres and just at the city entrance the place was a complete mud due to the rain, our options were to either walk 3 kilometres back or just get in the mud with our shoes. ??
Inside the old walled city, there are endless touristic places to visit and eat, having a good tour around the city can take you half day. We visited The Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque, built between 1298 and 1312 in Gothic style. It’s originally known as the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas and considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the Mediterranean. It was consecrated as a Catholic cathedral in 1328 then converted into a mosque during the Ottoman reign. Our last stop to get food was Petek Pastanesi, founded in 1976 and it’s one of the biggest and to the top pastry restaurants in Northern Cyprus with branches in different cities.
The meetup was exciting and spontaneous, we all had a great time networking, learning some new tips and tricks on Maps and some get to meet newly joined local guides.
Our goal is to organize another meetup after midterms exams in April to complete mapping campus then have a local guide club registered club in the university as we must get 50 members which are university policy to start a new club.
What we discovered during our first meet up as Local Guides are as follows:
1, I have lived in Famagusta for almost a year and I was only able to add missing places early this February due to this it was impossible to organize a meetup, because of constant addressing error which Google Maps rejects even if it automatically picks the exact location coordinates and puts correct address.
2, Language barrier and Trust Issues, because we can’t speak Turkish it’s almost impossible to convince some people on the importance of having their business listings on Google Maps even someone translate what we say. It’s just a big no for some people who speak English and understand the benefits, also I think being black here is another challenge.
3, Because of limited local guides, edits almost doesn’t get approved and it always ends up showing couldn’t verify edits or pending which takes forever
4, Because of the partitioned and the south is internationally recognized, it’s like most the maps data and some features is tailored for South Cyprus only. Can’t add fix wrong information, missing addresses and roads, no perks
5, Majority indigenous people that are local guides are not really aware of Local Guides Connect, we tried reaching out to some to further collaborate and improve the city listing but that has always been almost impossible.
Thank for you taking your time to read our recap, here is the list of some of the places we visited and contributed Famagusta Walled City Meetup
. We sure had an amazing time.