This town is coming like a Ghost Town

Residents of Akrotiri are probably aware that in the last few months the Thrift Shop has not only undergone a change of management also a slight overhaul. The great majority of the customers have reported nothing but positive feedback for the increase in opening hours, the re-jigging of the taking-in and paying-out system and the re-organisation of the shop contents.
It seems, however, that there are certain ‘souls’ who are less than satisfied with the upheaval caused by this work. I was recently involved in conversation with the staff and volunteers at the Thrift Shop, who reluctantly admitted that the premises may be the subject of certain spectral visitations. On more than one occasion, on entering the shop after it has been vacated and locked up for a day or two, staff have noticed the imprints of a childs’ shoes on the floor. The volunteers who work there maintain that the floor is always cleaned thoroughly before the shop is closed. Furthermore, there have occasionally been a secondary set of shoeprints on the opposite side of the shop floor, with no other marks in-between. On other occasions, bolts to inner doors behind doors which have been witnessed to have been closed at the end of the day have been mysteriously found pulled back the following morning. However, perhaps the most spine-tingling occurrence has been the discovery, one morning, of a pile of books found, neatly stacked in the centre of the shop floor, as if having been tampered with by a mischievous child. None of these can be explained logically as there is no sign of any forced entry and only the manageress holds the keys to the shop. Does the Aki Thrift Shop have a poltergeist, the spirit of a disgruntled customer? Who knows!
This is not the only report of alleged supernatural goings-on around the base, and, when you consider the history of Akrotiri, it is not surprising. Since its establishment in 1955, Aki has seen its fair share of incidents as well as the aftermath of many conflicts and operations. These include the troubles between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots which culminated in the occupation of the north in 1974, two Gulf Wars, Operation Highbrow which came into force to liberate the occupants of the Lebanon in 2006 and, of course, the ongoing war in Afghanistan. A brief sojourn around the airbase brings you into contact with a great number of buildings that appear to have been standing (some, now barely) since the inception of the base; and currently undergoing demolition are a number of quarters that are at least a few decades old. It would be impossible to contemplate the numbers of families that must have passed through our gates in the last half-century, each bringing with them their own stories and situations, some, I’m sure, more tragic than others and which may have left their imprint on the bricks and mortar they left behind. I have friends who lived previously in the older quarters on base who claim to have heard mysterious and unexplained noises in the night that have even the most logical minded amongst them feeling the hairs on the back of their necks prickle.
Another suspected hub of phantom activity is The Princess Mary Hospital. The very location of the hospital lends itself to myth and speculation as it sits on a lone promontory overlooking the Mediterranean. During the day it is the scene of breath-taking views over endless blue sea flanked by imposing cliffs and a picturesque golf-course, however, when the spectacular sunset ebbs away and the shadows creep over the water, the eeriness seeps in, perpetuated by the peninsula wind which whips and blows between the buildings. It is no wonder that the building earned the nickname ‘Alcatraz’. The hospital itself is usually fairly unoccupied unless a crisis is ongoing and at night the echoing, empty corridors would be enough to make any but the hardiest of disposition just a little jumpy. There have been many staff members claims of feeling certain ‘cold spots’ which have an air of uneasiness and which don’t invite the occupants to linger long.
The wards have been a temporary home to numerous casualties, including both Terry Waite and John McCarthy, the ill-fated Lebanon hostages en-route to the homes after their liberation. More sadly, it was also used as a crisis centre for victims of the US Marines Barracks Bombing in Beirut. Doubtless there are individuals who ended their days there and, who knows, the echoes of these sad events may still emanate through the wards today.