Inside abandoned town ‘haunted by ghosts’ where families were forced to leave kids 100yrs ago thinking they’d come back
TUCKED away in a corner of Turkey lies an abandoned village whose residents were forced to leave after ghost sightings.
The town of Kayaköy was once a lively and integrated community of Greek–Turkish people but was left to rot by locals some 100 years ago.
It has now become a true ghost town that sits empty except for tour groups visiting the historical place that failed to stand the test of time.
Most of the houses in the city have now lost their roofs and their collapsed walls sprout with vegetation.
The ruins of houses, churches and other buildings can be found in the city, which was once home to thousands of people before they left the town.
The eerie streets have been left behind, with people able to wander from building to building and have a glimpse at the lives of those who used to live there.
Jane Akatay, the co-author of “A Guide to Kayaköy,” claims one reason for the abandonment of the town was the “palpable sadness” that still lingers over the place following the tragic events of the 1920s.
The last of the townspeople were predominantly Greek Orthodox but they were persecuted and forced out of their homes following the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922.
This was due to the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which contained a protocol for a population exchange between Greece and Turkey.
It permanently barred Greek Orthodox refugees from returning to their homes in Turkey and instead forced them to leave their homes for Greece.
While most of the Turkish towns evacuated by the departing Greek Orthodox residents were rebuilt, Kayaköy was left abandoned.
Some say people never returned to the once-blooming village because of ghost sightings.
Yiğit Ulaş Öztimur, a visitor from Ankara, dubbed Kayaköy as “a dark mirror of our past”.
He told CNN: “This was once a Christian village, now what we see is a bitter reflection of what happened.
“And because most of the buildings are intact, you can feel what life was like here.”
What finally ended the life inside the small town was the 1957 Fethiye earthquake that damaged much of the infrastructure of the village.
Jane added: “There have been earthquakes, there have been storms. The climate, the weather, the rainstorms… everything has impacted this interesting place.
“Over the years, the mortar holding them together has crumbled, and things fall apart if you don’t take care of them.”
The abandoned homes and buildings now act as a museum that takes visitors through the journey of time.
Visitors today can pay a small fee of £3 at a small kiosk to enter the abandoned city.