FOR almost 40 years it has been a place where time stands still.

Nobody lives or works there, there is no sign of life and the only people to pass through are the occasional United Nations peacekeepers on patrol.

Newspapers from 1974 lie unsold on shop counters while what were once brand new cars sit in a showroom with less than 40 miles on the clock.

This is Nicosia in Cyprus, Europe’s last divided city, which has been a virtual no man’s land for almost four decades.

It is almost in the middle of a 112-mile buffer zone that stretches across the country, dividing the Turkish community of the north with the Greek Cypriots of the south and is so contentious that neither side can claim it.

On both sides of the giant zone, known famously as the Green Line, soldiers from the opposing forces face each other from observation posts, keeping an eye and ready to react should the other.

With the exception of bouts of stone throwing or low level violence, it’s a verbal ceasefire agreement that helps to keep real trouble at bay, aside from the United Nations peacekeeping patrols whose job it has been since 1993 to stop any potential incidents flaring.

At the end of this month that role will fall to hundreds of Hampshire soldiers who are being deployed to Cyprus for six months on a peacekeeping mission.

Around 250 men and women from the Marchwood-based 17 Port and Maritime Regiment will be involved in the tour, carrying out patrols on foot, bikes and in vehicles – and working alongside Argentinian allies.

They have spent the past few weeks finalising preparations and honing their skills on the vast Nescliff Training Area in Shropshire, using replica buffer zones to recreate incidents that they may face for real in just a few weeks time.

Soldiers were put through their paces patrolling a specially re-created ‘Green Line’ through the fields and tracks, with lifelike scenarios of incidents like those recently experienced by other troops in Cyprus.

Lt Col Rob Askew, commanding officer of the regiment, said 260 soldiers will deploy, 140 of them coming from the Marchwood base.

The regiment has been asked to take on the tour having recently completed operations at the London Olympics.

They will be joined by around 40 Territorial Army reservists from Millbrooks 266 squadron.

He said: “This is a mission that is very long established and part of the UN. It’s very different to Afghanistan and Iraq so it’s vitally important that we prepare efficiently.

“This is about peacekeeping that the British have been involved with for many years.”