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Kayakoy, Türkiye —
Kayakoy has a large and very prestigious school. Houses are lined with narrow streets that wind and rise on either side of a steep valley. There is an old fountain in the middle of town. There is also a church, and from the top of the hill you can see the blue Aegean Sea.
But for most of the past 100 years, humans didn’t exist.
Kayakoy, located in Muğla province in southwestern Türkiye, is truly a ghost town. Abandoned by the residents, he is haunted by his past. This is a monument frozen in time, a physical reminder of Türkiye’s dark times.
The hillside, dotted with countless crumbling buildings, is slowly being swallowed up by greenery, and with endless views of vanished people, this place is also a fascinating and extremely beautiful place to visit. It’s spooky enough in the summer, with clear skies and a blazing sun. This is especially true in the cooler months when the mountains and sea are shrouded in fog.
Just over a century ago, Kayakoy, or Levissi as it was known, was a bustling town of at least 10,000 Greek Orthodox Christians, many of them artisans, who lived peacefully alongside the region’s Muslim Turkish farmers. But their simple life was torn apart in the turmoil surrounding Turkey’s emergence as an independent republic.
After the end of the Greco-Turkish War in 1922, tensions with neighboring Greece escalated, leading both countries to expel people associated with the other. For Kayakoy, this meant forced population exchange with Muslim Turks living in Kavala, the Greek region of modern-day Macedonia and Thrace.
However, the newly arrived Muslims were reportedly not very happy with their new homeland and soon moved away, leaving Kayakoy in ruins.
Among the few who survived were Aisun Ekizu’s grandparents. His family now runs a small restaurant near Kayakoy’s main gate, serving snacks to tourists who come to see the city. Stories of those difficult times have been passed down through generations.
“My grandparents told me that the Greek people were screaming that they didn’t want to go back,” said Ekiz, who now sells handmade jewelry to tourists. “Some left their children in the care of Turkish friends, thinking they would return. But they never returned.”
Ekizu says his grandparents’ family were shepherds and they quickly adapted to life on the outskirts. She said most of her fellow transplants hated living in Kayakoy. This is because the walls of the house were painted blue, probably to ward off scorpions and snakes.
Some of that blue color still remains on the walls of the approximately 2,500 houses that make up Kayakoy, but after decades of exposure to the elements, few other decorative touches remain. What’s left is still worth exploring as a snapshot of an ancient way of life on the brink of modernity.
Jane Akatei, co-author of A Guide to Kayaköy, says one of the reasons the town was abandoned was probably the palpable sadness that remained in the area after the tragic events of the 1920s. Nature also played a role in annihilating its man-made objects.
earthquake and storm
“We had earthquakes, we had storms. Climate, weather, storms… everything affected this interesting place,” she says. “Also, over the years, the mortar that holds them together begins to crumble and if you don’t take care of them, they will fall apart.”
Today’s visitors pay a fee of 3 euros (just over $3) at a small kiosk on the main road before entering Kayakoy. From there, they can walk up and down sometimes steep and uneven paths and alleys. Signs at the entrance to schools, churches and fountains.
It’s worth budgeting a few hours to see it all. It’s easy to find some alone time here, as there are few visitors aside from the occasional tour group during the busy season. In particular, you can imagine the old town square, where local men would gather to drink tea and share stories, and how it was once a lively place.
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Most of the houses, built a century before they were abandoned, now have no roofs and overgrown with crumbling walls. Some houses have pits in their basements that were once used to tan hides into leather. Shoe making was a common occupation here.
Many facilities still have intact reservoirs, essential for storing water in towns without plumbing.
“Drinking water was brought in on donkeys,” Ekiz says. She also grimly recalled that residents were using torn up old clothes instead of toilet paper because there were no proper sanitation facilities. These rags were burned as fuel or spread on gardens as fertilizer.
Despite the frugality of these measures, Kayakoy has remained relatively prosperous and was once the region’s main commercial hub, surpassing the nearby port of Fethiye, Ekiz said. Fethiye Port is now a thriving urban center and a popular tourist destination.
Although this was clearly a close-knit community, Ekizu claims that each two-story property here was carefully spaced from its neighbors. “They are all made so that the sunlight cannot be blocked by others,” she says.
One of the most prominent buildings in town is the Upper Church. It is a large structure with faded pink plaster walls and a barrel-vaulted ceiling. Unfortunately, the building is no longer accessible due to its age, but you can enjoy its charming appearance from various angles.
The ruins of Kayakoy’s old school building, at the highest point inland of the town, offer views of the main church and the houses below. Today, the Turkish flag flies on a pole atop the building.
Isit Ulás Oztimur, on holiday from Turkey’s capital Ankara, describes Kayakoy as “a dark mirror of our past” as he takes in the sights.
“This used to be a Christian village, and what we see now is a bitter reflection of what happened,” he says. “And most of the buildings are still intact, so you can get a sense of what life was like here.”
There are marked hiking trails through Kayakoy from nearby towns, but it’s easy to get lost wandering the streets. Some alleys dead end. Open doorways and staircases beckon at every turn (though many of the buildings are dilapidated and visitors are asked not to enter).
It’s worth crossing the valley and climbing up the winding roads to the small church. The last few meters are a steep climb between rocks and pine trees, which then leads to the top of the hill.
Reflecting the culture of the people who lived here, this church resembles the classic small buildings often found overlooking villages on the Greek islands. It is a small, modest building with a domed roof and small unglazed windows. The interior is completely empty.
The Turkish flag is flying here too, shining bright red against the bright blue sky. And below, beyond the densely forested hillsides, lies the sparkling waters of the Aegean Sea. It’s a spectacular sight, one that has changed little since the days when Kayakoy lived among its people.
