KAYAKOY.....BEAUTIFUL GHOST TOWN

The town of Kayakoy, with stone houses, churches, and a school stretching up the hillside, has been vacant since the Population Exchange took place in the 1920's.
The loss of the First World War, the end of the Ottoman Empire and the attempted Greek occupation of the Anatolian region, all combined to create the Exchange. The Greek Christians who lived here were part of the approximately 1 million Greeks that were forced to leave their homes, animals, and their Turkish friends and move to Greece. The Turkish people in Greece were forced to move back to Turkey, but they could not or didn't want to live in this hillside town, so it was just left to deteriorate. It was very interesting, and sad to walk around all these buildings, knowing that the people who had lived happily in this town, were forced to leave it all behind.
Most of the buildings were built in the 19th century, but the history of the city dates back to 3000 BC. The buildings were partially destroyed in an earthquake in 1957.