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All Turkey Mudurnu Burj Al Babas
AO Edited

Burj Al Babas

The only residents of this abandoned housing development full of identical castles are stray cats and dogs.

Mudurnu, Turkey

Added By
Inka Piegsa-Quischotte
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Each house in Burj Al Babas has a rounded turret like a storybook castle.   Chris McGrath/Getty Images
Each house in Burj Al Babas has a rounded turret like a storybook castle.   Chris McGrath/Getty Images
More than 500 of the houses were completed before the project stopped.   Chris McGrath/Getty Images
The houses were left in varying states of completion.   Chris McGrath/Getty Images
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About

In the hilly woodlands of northwestern Turkey, in Bolu Province, halfway between Istanbul and Ankara, sits an otherworldly sight: Burj Al Babas, the world’s most epic ghost town. Right next to the historical town of Mudurnu, which is famous for its 600-year-old mosque and traditional Ottoman houses, there are rows upon rows of turreted chateaus. The only residents are a few stray dogs and cats.

Burj Al Babas is an example of development gone terribly wrong. A property developer from Dubai, the Sarot Group, had the idea to construct 732 castles, plus a shopping and entertainment center and Turkish baths from natural hot springs in one of the most beautiful parts of Turkey, not far from the Black Sea. Construction began in 2014, and they managed to more or less complete 583 castles (at a cost of $200 million) before economic disaster struck. The project was abandoned in 2019.

Developers say they still plan to revive the neighborhood, which has become an attraction in its own right. But residents of Mudurnu continue to oppose the massive “white elephant” of a development. What happens to these storybook villas remains to be seen.

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Abandoned Ghost Towns Houses Castles Real Estate

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The area has active security

Community Contributors

Added By

Inka PiegsaQuischotte

Edited By

joeljunt, Michelle Cassidy

  • joeljunt
  • Michelle Cassidy

Published

July 20, 2021

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Burj Al Babas
Burj Al Babas Villa
Büyükcami
Mudurnu, 14800
Turkey
40.444411, 31.204584
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