Kayaköy is a pretty village in the hills just outside Fethiye.
There are new builds alongside many old houses that have been lovingly restored to give you a feel of how Kayaköy used to be.
There is plenty of accommodation along with places to eat and drink as well as activities such as horse riding and quad biking available.
But the thing the village is famous for is the ‘Ghost Village’…
The Ghost Village
The Ghost Village was a thriving village up until around 100 years ago.
At the start of the Greco Turkish War in 1919 Kayaköy was already nearly empty of its former inhabitants. However, when this war ended in September 1922 a population exchange resulted in Muslims and Christians being exchanged between Greece and Türkiye so that each country could claim one major religion in the path toward ethnic and national homogeneity.
However, the village was never again inhabited as those returning from Greece felt its hillside location was too remote. Although, rumour has it that it was considered to be too full of bad will and ‘ghosts’ so people were afraid to live there again.
Today the Ghost Village consists of abandoned and derelict buildings which not only suffered the fate of the desertion but also fell foul of an earthquake in 1957 which saw many of the buildings collapse.
However, you can still walk the paths where the stones are shiny from the many feet that have touched them over time.
You can use your imagination and make up stories of which buildings were inhabited by the rich, the poor and those in between, how the locals survived, and also see where they would have worshipped.
The village has also become famous in other ways.
Louis de Bernieres, famous for writing Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, also write Birds Without Wings where the fictional town of Eskibahçe was based on Kayaköy. In the past he has come to Kayaköy and read out chapters of his book.
The village was also used as the backdrop in the film The Water Diviner staring Russell Crowe.
