mmozamiz
A ghost town
KAYAKOY is a ghost town that is located about five miles west of Hisaronu. Ölüdeniz a beautiful crescent moon beach is also nearby. Once known as Levissi and was abandoned not long after World War I and the Turkish War of Independence. The abandonment occurred because previous to these wars, many Greeks had to go live in Turkey and on the other hand, many Turks had to go and live in Greece. Therefore after the conflict, The UN oversaw the exchange of population between Turkey and Greece. Most of the inhabitants of Kayakoy, who were Ottoman Greeks, moved to the outskirts of Athens, where they founded Nea Levissia.
Since then the city has just a very small number of Turkish inhabitants, and has 2,000 completely abandoned stone houses. It is a place with an incredible charm, as the houses are interspersed with spectacular nature where green is the predominant colour. In 1980 several contractors tried to restore the stone houses to create a great resort, but fortunately they were not able to achieve there goal as the Ministry of Culture decided to declare the city la national landmark and thereby protecting it. Since then, hundreds of tourists come to see with their own eyes this wonderful place. There are two churches worth visiting that retain some of the paintings that had even the pavements of black and white pebbles with which they were made.
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