They Built A Neighborhood of 587 Disney Castles For People To Live In - Now It's A Ghost town
They Built A Neighborhood of 587 Disney Castles For People To Live In - Now It's A Ghost town
For generations, Disney has been peddling the idea that castles, princesses, and fantasy kingdoms are the most magical places on Earth. So, when a group of Turkish developers started advertising the construction of a real-life neighborhood made up of hundreds of miniature castles, complete with Disney-esque façades and fairy-tale touches, it seemed like a no-brainer. A luxury village where you could actually live in Disney-style castles? For a lot of prospective buyers, especially Gulf state millionaires with the money to actually pull it off, the sales pitch was almost too good to resist. The result, one of the strangest abandoned projects on the planet, went from dream development to surreal ghost town almost overnight.
The Fairy Tale
Burj Al Babas started out as an idea by two construction business people from Istanbul, who went by the name of the Yerdelen brothers. They planned to build a giant luxury housing project consisting of 732 three-story, identical villas. The style was an eclectic mix of Gothic, English, and American influences, complete with spires, dormer windows, and fairytale-like turrets. The towers were named after famous Istanbul landmarks such as the Galata Tower and Maiden’s Tower. All this gave the homes a bizarre, yet strangely cute, fairytale-meets-fantasy aesthetic.
In the center of the planned development, the company had plans for a giant domed complex that included a shopping mall, Turkish baths, beauty spas, a mosque, and a movie theater. This was not just going to be a residential area, but a whole luxury resort city.
Prices of homes ranged from $370,000 to $530,000. The main market for the development was wealthy customers from the Middle East. They named their company the Burj Al Babas Thermal Tourism Company, emphasizing the natural hot springs of the area. With underground temperatures of 68°C (154°F), the area was already known for its thermal baths. It sounded like a winning investment opportunity for luxury, wellness, and fairytale-style living.
The plan was working. Nearly half of the villas sold on-plan, many of the buyers coming from Kuwait and the Gulf states. Burj Al Babas looked like a winner on paper.
No Happy Ever After
Construction on the project began in 2014 with 2,500 workers. The intention, which the developers maintained throughout the construction, was to complete the entire development in four years. But from the start, there were setbacks.
A contractor accused the developers of breaking environmental laws by dumping rubble. The next year, workers went on strike after not being paid. In one case, a worker climbed a castle tower, threatening to jump unless he was paid.
Delays began to add up. Construction progressed slowly through cold winters. The July 2016 coup attempt also contributed to further unrest. Contractors began to not show up. Payments were being contested. Lawsuits were being filed. Accusations were made.
By then, the global oil market had crashed, further depressing the Gulf state buyers who were expected to buy the homes in the community. Sales dried up. In 2018, the developers filed for bankruptcy.
By 2022, 587 of the castles had been left half-finished, to weather the elements. Winter had eaten away at their roofs. Water had damaged interiors. Far from being a luxury kingdom, the partially finished homes, street after street of identical grey castles, all standing empty, now had the look of a dystopian wasteland.
In 2024, interest in the development reportedly piqued after the Emir of Kuwait made an official visit to Turkey, and discussions with President Erdoğan reportedly included talks about the future of the development. The companies behind Burj Al Babas were later transferred to a Turkish state fund that supports ailing businesses. But to date, no homes have been finished.
The Ghost That Remains
What’s left today is one of the most surreal ghost towns on the planet. Row upon row of Disney-like castles, all silent and incomplete. Burj Al Babas is supposed to be a place where people go to escape reality. But instead it’s a ghost town of fairy-tale castles, a ghost town full of hard-learned lessons that even in real estate, sometimes fantasy is just too difficult to create.
