Pyla is a village in Larnaca District

Larnaca District

Larnaca District is one of the six districts of Cyprus. Its main town is Larnaca. A small part of the district was occupied by the Turkish army in 1974....

, Cyprus

Cyprus

Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...

. It is one of only four villages located within the United Nations Buffer Zone

United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus

The United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus runs for more than along what is known as the Green Line and has an area of . The zone partitions the island of Cyprus into a southern area effectively controlled by the government of the Republic of Cyprus , and the northern area...

, the other three being Athienou

Athienou

Athienou is a village in Larnaca District, Cyprus. It is one of only four villages located within the United Nations Buffer Zone, the other three being Pyla, Troulloi and Deneia...

, Troulloi

Troulloi

Troulloi is a village in Larnaca District, Cyprus. It is one of only four villages located within the United Nations Buffer Zone, the other three being Pyla, Athienou and Deneia. Today, Troulloi has a population of around 1,000 people. The village's patron saint is Saint Mamas, celebrated on 2...

 and Deneia

Deneia

Deneia is a village in the Nicosia District of Cyprus, west of Mammari. It is one of only four villages located within the United Nations Buffer Zone, the other three being Pyla, Athienou and Troulloi....

. Pyla is located in the eastern part of the island, adjacent to the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Sovereign Base Area

Sovereign Base Areas

The Sovereign Base Areas are military bases located on territory in which the United Kingdom is sovereign, but which are separated from the ordinary British territory....

 of Dhekelia

Akrotiri and Dhekelia

The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia are two British-administered areas comprising a British Overseas Territory on the island of Cyprus administered as Sovereign Base Areas of the United Kingdom...

. From a legal point of view, it is administered as all other areas controlled by the government of the Republic of Cyprus.

The village is special in the respect that it is the only settlement in Cyprus still inhabited by both its original Greek Cypriot

Greek Cypriots

Greek Cypriots are the ethnic Greek population of Cyprus, forming the island's largest ethnolinguistic community at 77% of the population. Greek Cypriots are mostly members of the Church of Cyprus, an autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church within the wider communion of Orthodox Christianity...

 and Turkish Cypriot

Turkish Cypriots

Turkish Cypriots are the ethnic Turks and members of the Turkish-speaking ethnolinguistic community of the Eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The term is used to refer explicitly to the indigenous Turkish Cypriots, whose Ottoman Turkish forbears colonised the island in 1571...

 inhabitants . 850 of the inhabitants are Greek Cypriots and 487 are Turkish Cypriots . The village has three churches and one mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...

.

Pyla is also known in Greece and Cyprus as the birthplace of popular Greek Cypriot singer Anna Vissi

Anna Vissi

Anna Vissi , known as Anna Vishy in Cypriot Greek, is a Greek-Cypriot recording artist and actress...

.