The Turkish town of Burj Al Babas is a rather eerie sight, located near Mudurnu, about halfway between the tourists hotspots of Istanbul and Ankara, now lying empty and abandoned, just ten years after its construction began. The fairytale-like homes of Burj Al Babas were the brainchild of property entrepreneurs the Yerdelen brothers, who run the property development company the Sarot group. They aimed for the village to be comprised of 732 three-story luxury villas, that would be built within the Western Gothic style.
However, not a single house has been completed since construction began in 2014, with only empty shells standing at the location now. The brothers had hoped that the town would be completed in just four years, and it seemed to be a success at first, with approximately half of the castle-style homes selling in advance of their completion. However, since then the construction has been hit with numerous setbacks, the first of which was complaints from unhappy locals, many of whom were annoyed that the homes didn't resemble anything else in the area, arguably becoming something of an eyesore.
A subsequent lawsuit saw the developers accused of destroying trees and harming the environment. Following this, Turkey's economy took a downward turn and the purchasing property in the country became less and less appealing to rich foreigners, the very people that the Yerdelen brothers had been hoping would snap up these unique homes. Disaster then struck again in 2019, when t.