Fasli

Fasli is one of the many abandoned villages in the Paphos province and it is situated 33 km north of the homonymous town, 95 km northwest of Limassol and 178 km west of Nicosia.

Very close to the Neo Chorio of Paphos, the neighboring forest of Akamas, the villages of Laona and 11 kilometers from Polis Chrysochous, Fasli used to be a purely Turkish Cypriot village in a region with several streams spilling into the bay of Chrysochous and the western sea front of Paphos. Although it does no longer have permanent residents, some houses have now been rented by Greek Cypriots, who use them as summer cottages.

The village is not found in medieval sources, although on a map dating back to the Venetian rule, there is a settlement called Masmi. Its name is probably associated with an ancient place name – possibly the ancient Greek city of Phasilis in Asia Minor.

The deserted community was inhabited up until the Turkish invasion of 1974, a period when Turkish Cypriot residents were forced to leave the village and be transferred to the occupied northern areas of the island.

In Fasli, the visitor, in addition to the impressive but nevertheless sad scenery of abandonment, will see the ruins of the church of St. Karios, whose name may be a corruption of St. Makarios. It is possible that the locals during the Ottoman domination had taken Islam as their religion in order to avoid the Turkish taxes, but remained secret Christians, that is to say, they were Linovamvakes. Over the course of time, however, they forgot their identity and became fully Turkish. The community is accessible from the Androlikos-Inias road.