Famous ghost village drawing tourist attention amid pandemic

A centuries-old village in Turkey's southwestern province of Muğla's Fethiye district, Kayaköy, also known as the "Ghost Town" with its abandoned houses, churches and chapels, is going full with international tourists making reservations, especially for the weekends amid the ongoing pandemic.

Situated in the Kaya Valley of the Fethiye peninsula 120 meters above sea level, Kayaköy is a beautiful yet haunting spot for many as it sheds light on a sensitive era of Turkey's history.

In the 19th century, Kayaköy was a thriving town, where Turkey's Muslims and Greek Orthodox Christians lived together in harmony.

In the aftermath of the defeat in the First World War, the end of the Ottoman Empire and the Greco-Turkish War, all Greek Christians were deported while all Muslim Turks were expelled from Greece in a massive mutual population exchange that took place in 1923.

However, Turks who resettled in the area did not wish to reside in Kayaköy, leading to its abandonment.

Now, it is a deserted village with hundreds of Greek-style homes and churches covering a small mountainside, which have largely been preserved, giving visitors a feeling of time standing still.

The village has become a great tourist attraction and is welcoming a large number of foreign tourists amid the ongoing pandemic, taking them on a historical journey.

Güner Ekiz, 51, who was born and raised in Kayaköy, said that his grandfathers settled in the village at the time of population exchange.

"Because this is a dry region, its economy went weak and there was internal migration after coming here. It's still a quiet area at the moment. It was completely abandoned after the earthquake in 1957," Ekiz said while explaining why the village was known as a...

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