The Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (abbr. SBA; Greek: Περιοχές Κυρίαρχων Βάσεων Ακρωτηρίου και Δεκέλιας, Periochés Kyríarchon Váseon Akrotiríou kai Dekélias; Turkish: Egemen Üs Bölgeleri Ağrotur ve Dikelya) is a British Overseas Territory on the island of Cyprus. The areas, which include British military bases and installations, as well as other land, were retained by the British under the 1960 treaty of independence, signed by the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey and representatives from the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, which granted independence to the Crown colony of Cyprus. The territory serves an important role as a station for signals intelligence and provides a vital strategic part of the United Kingdom communications gathering and monitoring network in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. The United States may have a significant presence in these territories.
The territory is composed of two Base Areas. One is Akrotiri (Greek: Ακρωτήρι pronounced [akroˈtiri]; Turkish: Ağrotur Turkish pronunciation: [ˈaːɾotuɾ]), or the Western Sovereign Base Area(WSBA), which includes two main bases at RAF Akrotiri and Episkopi, plus all of Akrotiri Village’s district (including Limassol Salt Lake) and parts of eleven other village districts.[4] The other area is Dhekelia Cantonment (Δεκέλεια Greek pronunciation: [ðeˈceʎa]; Dikelya), or the Eastern Sovereign Base Area (ESBA), which includes a base at Ayios Nikolaos plus parts of twelve village districts.
addresses
12345678 LCPL B Jones
B Company
1 Loamshire Regt
Dhekelia
BF1 2AU GB
United Kingdom
12345678 LCPL B Jones
B Company
1 Loamshire Regt
Dhekelia
BFPO 58 GB
United Kingdom
who?
To read about the Loamshire Regiment, please consult the BIOT page.
The Sovereign Base Area is serviced by the British Forces Post Office (BFPO) for mail delivery and posting. It is a closed mail system supporting the British Armed Forces. When sending to BFPO addresses, the BFPO number is preferred; in recent years, postcodes were created; this was to meet the demands of ecommerce – online ordering systems often require a valid postcode. In the BFPO system, postcodes are less efficient for addressing items, since items will take longer to arrive.
If correspondence is posted from outside of UK, the sender is requested to write GB after the BFPO number or postcode.
Address format for service personnel:
SERVICE NUMBER, RANK and NAME
UNIT or REGIMENT
OPERATION or LOCATION NAME (if applicable – not country of operation)
BFPO number (or postcode) (GB if international)
UNITED KINGDOM
Sovereign Base Area BFPO Numbers & Postcodes
| BFPO Number | Postcode | Location | Country |
| 53 | BF1 2AS | Episkopi | Cyprus |
| 57 | BF1 2AT | Akrotiri | Cyprus |
| 58 | BF1 2AU | Dhekelia | Cyprus |
| 59 | BF1 2AW | Ayios Nikolaos | Cyprus |