A Ghost Town Transformed into a Popular Tourist Attraction

Kayaköy, in the Muğla province of southwestern Turkey, is a true ghost town. Abandoned by its inhabitants and haunted by the past, it stands as a monument frozen in time—a physical reminder of Turkey's dark times. With slopes dotted with countless dilapidated buildings slowly being consumed by greenery and endless vistas of vanished lives, it is also an intriguing and incredibly beautiful place to visit.

In the summer, under the clear sky and blazing sun, it is quite eerie. Even more so in the colder seasons, shrouded in mountain or sea mist, as reported by CNN. Just over a century ago, Kayaköy, or Levissi as it was known, was a bustling town with at least 10,000 Greek Orthodox Christians, many of whom were craftsmen living peacefully alongside Turkish Muslim farmers in the region. However, during the turmoil surrounding Turkey's emergence as an independent republic, their simple lives were shattered. Tensions with neighboring Greece after the end of the Greco-Turkish War in 1922 led both countries to expel people with ties to the other. For Kayaköy, this meant a forced population exchange with Muslim Turks living in Kavala, now part of Greek Macedonia and Thrace.

But it is said that the newly arrived Muslims were not too pleased with their new home, leaving quickly and allowing Kayaköy to fall into ruin. Among the very few who remained were Aysun Ekiz's grandparents, whose family now runs a small restaurant near the main entrance of Kayaköy, serving refreshments to tourists visiting the town. Stories of those difficult years have been passed down through generations. "The Greeks cried because they didn't want to leave, my grandparents told me," says Ekiz, who now sells handmade jewelry to visitors. "Some even left their children behind to be cared for by Turkish friends because they believed they would return. But they never did." The Ghost Town Draws More Tourists Visitors pay a fee of three euros at a small kiosk on the main road before entering Kayaköy. From there, they can walk through its sometimes steep streets and alleys. Entrance signs indicate the school, churches, and the water fountain. It's worth setting aside a few hours to see it all. With few visitors aside from occasional tourist groups during peak times, it's easy to find time to yourself here, imagining how it once was bustling with life, not least in the old town square where local men used to gather to drink tea and swap stories. Most of the houses, built in the century before abandonment, have now lost their roofs, and crumbling walls are overgrown with vegetation. Some houses have basements, once used for tanning leather—shoemaking was a common profession here. Many still have intact cisterns—essential for storing water in a town without sanitation facilities.

"Drinking water was brought by donkeys," says Ekiz. Despite such frugal measures, Ekiz says Kayaköy was relatively prosperous and was once the main commercial center of the area, surpassing the nearby port city of Fethiye, which is now a thriving urban center and popular tourist destination. Although it was clearly a very close-knit community, Ekiz insists that each of the two-story properties here was carefully spaced from its neighbor. "They were all built so that no one would have their sunlight blocked by another," she says. "A Bitter Reflection" One of the most prominent buildings in town is the Upper Church, a large structure with faded pink stucco walls and barrel-vaulted ceilings. Unfortunately, the building is sealed off due to its dilapidated state, although from many angles, its tempting views can be admired. At the highest point within the town, the ruins of the old Kayaköy school offer a view of the main church and the houses below. Today, a Turkish flag flies on a pole above the building. Observing the scene from here, Yiğit Ulaş Öztimur, on vacation from Turkey's capital Ankara, describes Kayaköy as "a dark mirror of our past." "This was once a Christian village; now what we see is a bitter reflection of what happened," he says. "And because most of the buildings are intact, you can feel what life was like here." There are marked hiking trails that pass through Kayaköy from nearby towns, but it is easy to get lost wandering the streets. On the other side of the valley, on winding streets, it's worth climbing up to the small church. It's a steep climb among rocks and pines for the last few meters, then it opens up to the top of the hill. Reflecting the culture of those who lived here, the church resembles the small classic structures often found above villages on Greek islands.

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