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There's a $200 million abandoned village of Disney-like castles in Turkey. Take a look inside.
There's a $200 million abandoned village of Disney-like castles in Turkey. Take a look inside.
Aria BendixJan 17, 2019, 01:25 IST
Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images
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The Burj Al Babas in Turkey was designed a a luxury community for foreign buyers.
As Turkey experiences an economic downturn, the project's developers have filed for bankruptcy protection and buyers have fallen through on their sales.
The nation's castle-like homes now sit empty in the northwestern region.
From far away, the Burj Al Babas could be confused for a diorama of miniature villas. The homes all look the same, their blue-grey steeples and Gothic fixtures calling to mind the castles in Disney films.
When the project first began in 2014, its developer, the Sarot Group, hoped the luxury aesthetic would appeal to wealthy foreign buyers. Now its homes sit empty at the base of Turkey's northwestern mountains.
Though there's still money left in its $200 million budget, the Sarot Group has already sought bankruptcy protection after buyers failed to come up with the money for the properties.
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The problem isn't unique to Turkey. Around the world, cities like New York, Las Vegas, Tokyo, and Burgos, Spain, are riddled with abandoned properties. But none are quite as eerie as the Burj Al Babas' empty villas, which stand as symbols of the nation's economic plight.
In October 2018, Turkey's inflation rate reached 25% — the highest it's been in 15 years. This jump was largely influenced by the decline of the nation's currency, the lira.
In September, Turkey's central bank raised interest rates in an attempt to counter these issues.
As Turkey contends with an economic crisis, it has also been racked by political turmoil.
Economic analysts have criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's excessive spending on infrastructure projects, which required borrowing from foreign banks.
As the value of the lira plummeted, foreign investors began to pull out of the projects, which led to a downturn in the construction industry.
As the country heads toward a recession, the Burj Al Babas' architect remains hopeful that the development will open by October 2019.
