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When the luxury residential complex known as Burj Al Babas near Mudurnu, Turkey, was unveiled in 2014, it was described as a fantasy land full of Disneyesque castles. And their interpretation wasn't far off the mark. Burj Al Babas was supposed to be a dream retreat for the privileged and wealthy, a chance to buy into an expensive property. Designed as a castle, complete with towers and turrets, not one of the 700-plus homes is occupied nearly 10 years later. In fact, Burj Al Babas is a half-finished ghost town, a crumbling symbol of failure on a grand scale. So what happened? How did one of Turkey's most ambitious real estate projects become such an infamous white elephant?
Click through the gallery and find out why Burj Al Babas was abandoned.
On paper, Burj Al Babas appeared as a luxurious urban residential development project designed for wealthy foreigners.
The blueprints called for the building of 732 nearly identical properties, created to resemble the lavish dimensions of a Disney-like châteaux.
The castles weren't cheap. Each little 'palace' cost anywhere between US$370,000 and US$500,000.
But after going on sale, only 350 out of 732 fairy-tale homes were sold. The project was soon doomed. In 2016, the Sarot Properties Group, the developer behind Burj Al Babas, was forced to declare bankruptcy before the mansions were completed.
Today, Burj Al Babas stands as a bizarre white elephant. None of the homes have ever been lived in, while the dream development now sits abandoned.
Rows of incomplete castles pepper the valley, their blue-gray turrets arrowing into the air as far as the eye can see. It's an eerie sight, chilling even.
The deserted, partially completed villas stand on a patchy landscape overgrown with weeds and wildflowers. Nature is starting to reclaim the 250-acre site.
The Sarot Group had also planned to complement the residential complex with a shopping mall and water park, complete with indoor and outdoor pools, slides, Turkish baths, steam rooms, and saunas.
Each home was earmarked to have its own pipeline to the nearby healing spring waters the region is famous for, feeding private indoor swimming pools.
Instead, the empty shells are now showing signs of neglect. In some places, water damage is evident, likely due to rainfall and the blankets of snow that shroud the valley each winter.
Burj Al Babas is located close to Mudurnu, a small town in the Bolu Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey.
Construction began on the complex in 2014, with a workforce of around 2,500 descending on the site. The cost of the project was estimated at US$200 million and was slated for completion in 2018.
At first, sales went well, with around half the castles snapped up in advance. Clients were mostly from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.
However, by 2018, it was clear the developers were not going to meet the deadline.
Debts of US$27 million were incurred. Sarot's financial woes were compounded by the economic turmoil that was enveloping Turkey at the time.
Sarot's business practices were also criticized. The company was slapped with a lawsuit that claimed it destroyed trees and harmed the environment.
The developers were also facing a backlash from the local community. Residents complained that the castles didn't resemble those of the historical Ottoman-style mansions they were supposed to be inspired by.
In fact, the aesthetic principle behind Burj Al Babas had always been to reflect the region's Ottoman-era architecture.
In Mudurnu itself, there are a number of well-preserved Ottoman Empire period houses. The townspeople are especially proud of the 130-year-old wooden clock tower that was built in the same style as the buildings that housed merchants traveling the Silk Road in the 15th and 16th centuries.
The cylindrical towers with dormer windows and witch hat turrets that characterize most of the Burj Al Babas mansions were inspired by the Galata Tower in Istanbul.
Similarly, the city's Maiden's Tower provided the architectural template for the square towers with balustrades topping out the remainder of the houses.
Overall, the developers were hoping to create their very own Disney inspired retreat; a place where the wealthy could escape the intense 113°F (45°C) heat of Gulf summers, conveniently located between Istanbul and the nation's capital, Ankara.
Much of the construction at Burj Al Babas had come to an abrupt halt in 2016, when developers realized they could not meet their obligations to their buyers and investors.
Disgruntled clients, many of whom had put down hefty deposits on their chosen castle, were demanding their money back.
Others had already paid in full for their mansions, replete with curved balconies and Gothic-style rooftop terraces.
In 2019, the Sarot Group voiced with renewed confidence that the project would be completed. Hopes were halted as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold and the world went into lockdown
By 2023 Burj Al Babas was being described as a crumbling wonderland, a ghost town in the Turkish countryside.
Today, the abandoned complex is regarded as an expensive fantasy that fell apart.
Ironically, this outlandish collection of houses that no one has lived in has its admirers. Burj Al Babas is one of the region's more unusual tourist attractions.
Whether Burj Al Babas will ever be completed is debatable. For many locals, the failed development has come to symbolize come to symbolize the financial problems and mismanagement that have dogged Turkey's construction sector for decades.
For the time being, this is a fairy tale residential project without a happy ending.
Sources: (Architectural Digest) (UNILAD) (The Guardian) (Metro) (Hürriyet Daily News)
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LIFESTYLE Property
When the luxury residential complex known as Burj Al Babas near Mudurnu, Turkey, was unveiled in 2014, it was described as a fantasy land full of Disneyesque castles. And their interpretation wasn't far off the mark. Burj Al Babas was supposed to be a dream retreat for the privileged and wealthy, a chance to buy into an expensive property. Designed as a castle, complete with towers and turrets, not one of the 700-plus homes is occupied nearly 10 years later. In fact, Burj Al Babas is a half-finished ghost town, a crumbling symbol of failure on a grand scale. So what happened? How did one of Turkey's most ambitious real estate projects become such an infamous white elephant?
Click through the gallery and find out why Burj Al Babas was abandoned.