More than one-thousand Greek Cypriots have made a pilgrimage to an abandoned monastery in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.

The pilgrimage -- the latest of a number over the past eighteen months -- has been described as a humanitarian journey designed to improve relations on the divided island.

Around one-thousand-three-hundred pilgrims led by a Greek Orthodox Priest crossed into Northern Cyprus through a United Nations-controlled checkpoint on their way to the monastery on the north east tip of the island.

Cyprus has been divided since Turkish forces invaded the north in 1974.

Repeated attempts at reconciliation have failed.