Inside abandoned ghost town that cost $200 million and is filled with castles

From a distance it looks like something out of Disney World… but it is far from it

A town exists on this planet that is currently being developed as part of a $200 million initiative, characterized solely by its numerous castles.

There were no people around, no signs of anyone being there, just emptiness.

Burj Al Babas, found in Turkey, resembles a place straight out of Disney World, but it has a much darker and sadder vibe.

You can find the ghost town close to Murdurnu, which is a little town located to the north of the country, about a two-hour drive from the Black Sea.

More than 500 castles lay abandoned in Burj Al Babas, Turkey. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

In the village, you can find 587 tiny abandoned castles scattered around, and there were plans for 732 fancy three-story villas that never got built.

This place doesn’t seem fancy at all, even though it was meant to be when they began building it in 2014.

Every castle would have a jacuzzi on each of its three levels, plus heated floors throughout.

The original brochure that was sent to customers mentioned that the main part of the site was supposed to have a big dome-shaped building. This building was planned to include a shopping center, health and beauty services, a mosque, and a cinema.

While they were in the middle of creating them, the Sarot Group, the developers, ran out of cash and ended up declaring bankruptcy with a debt of $5 million.

The goal was to attract flashy tourists who wanted to buy a vacation home in the sunny Turkey, with prices ranging from $370,000 to $530,000.

This means that if everything was sold for the lowest price, Sarot Group could have made $270 million. However, that didn’t happen because they decided to completely give up on the site in 2019.

Burj Al Babas may never be complete after plans to finish construction was abandoned in 2019. (Adem ALTAN / AFP/ ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images)

At first, the developers brought on 2,500 workers, thinking they could wrap everything up in four years. They actually started off really well, selling half of the castles even before the construction was done.

In 2018, sales suddenly stopped because oil prices dropped and there was a lot of instability in Turkey. This is what caused the sales to dry up, and as a result, the Sarot Group went bankrupt.

The mayor of Mudurnu, Mehmet İnegöl, believed that the project would be finished, even though so far, not a single house has been built.

The local people were defensive right from the beginning, and who could really blame them?

When construction started, people were really upset about the gothic style of the castles. They said the castles didn’t look like anything else around and would stand out too much in the countryside.

They got even angrier after saying that the developers were cutting down trees and hurting the environment.

Do you think the Burj Al Babas will ever be finished?

Featured Image Credit: ADEM ALTAN/AFP via Getty Images