Kayakoy

Kayakoy lies in the hills eight kilometres from Fethiye and is known as a ghost village.

Levissi

Until 1923 the Greek town of Levissi stood here, home to about two thousand Orthodox families living by crafts and trade. After the Greco-Turkish war, under the population exchange agreement, the inhabitants were moved to Greece, and the Muslims from Macedonia who came in their place did not settle on the stony slopes and went down to the plain.

The earthquake

The tremors of 1957 finished the work: the houses lost their roofs and floors, but the walls and the street plan survived almost intact, so the village reads whole, like a drawing.

What stands on the slope

Several hundred houses, two large churches with fragments of painting and mosaic floors, chapels, a school and water cisterns. The streets are laid out so that no house blocks its neighbour's view of the valley, which becomes clear from higher up.

Status and books

The site is a protected monument and an open-air museum, building is forbidden, and entry is ticketed. Kayakoy is taken to be one of the models for the village in Louis de Bernieres' novel Birds Without Wings.

An old path about seven kilometres long leads over the hill from the village to Gemiler Bay. Some of the houses at the foot of the slope have been bought and restored as homes.

Address

Kayakoy, 8 km from Fethiye · on the Oludeniz road

Opening hours

Summer 8:30–20:00, shorter in winter

Prices

About 3 EUR for foreign visitors

On the map