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Kaya Köy

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Kayaköy (Greek: Levissi) is a village 8 km south of Fethiye in southwestern Turkey where Anatolian Greeks lived until approximately 1923. The ghost town, now preserved as a museum village, consists of hundreds of rundown but still mostly intact Greek-style houses and churches which cover a small mountainside and serve as a stopping place for tourists visiting Fethiye and nearby Ölüdeniz.

It was built on the site of the ancient city of Carmylessus in the 1700s. It experienced a renewal after nearby Fethiye (known as Makri) was devastated by an earthquake in 1856 and a major fire in 1885. After the Greco-Turkish War, Kayaköy was largely abandoned after a population exchange agreement was signed by the Turkish and Greek governments in 1923.

Its population in 1900 was about 2,000, almost all Greek Christians; however, it is now empty except for tour groups and roadside vendors selling handmade goods and items scavenged from the former village.

Today Kayaköy village is a historical monument, nearly 3,500 houses have been preserved ruins, including two Greek Orthodox Churches remains the most important sights of the ghost city.
There is a private museum on the history of the city. In the middle of the village stands a fountain source from the 17th Century. Kayaköy was adopted by the UNESCO as a World Friendship and Peace Village. (source: Wikipedia)


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