City off; Sad Magic called Kayakoy

Among the spectacular scenery of Turkey‘s southern west of Türkiye, a hidden place where the time is imprisoned; Kayaköy, a deserted and amazing city that, like whispering, whispers the stories of a spectacular era in the ears of visitors. This ghost city that has been dumped in a heavy silence today was once full of life and culture; Where people called the Lycians lived for centuries and built a brilliant civilization.

The Likians were indigenous civilization in Anatolia whose roots dates back to the second millennium BC. Along the coast of Likieh, they built thriving cities in the area today, which is part of Türkiye. Kayakoy, formerly known as Levissi, was one of the most important cities of that period and flourished since the fifth century BC.

Its residents built a creative combination of Greek, Roman and anatolian cultures, stone houses, magnificent churches and astonishing structures. Their traces of their taste and creativity are still on the collapsed walls and old pavements. In the early twentieth century, the city’s fate changed. After World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, an agreement was implemented to exchange the population between Greece and Türkiye in the year 9. Greek and Christian residents of the area had to leave their homes and Kayakoy remained silent forever.

Today, this deserted city is a living museum of sadness and memory; Where tourists walk through the alleyways of its paved alleys, as if they were traveling and whispering the ghosts of the former inhabitants. Kayakoy is not just a historical destination; Reminding the fragility of life, forced movements, and unforgettable memories of people who once called the house. Alexandre Mounayer, a Qatar Doha photographer traveling to the forgotten city, has recorded and published attractive images. (Behans)