CASTLES IN THE AIR

It was meant to be a dream development of mansions in the Turkish hills. But 13 years on, Burj AI Babas is a half-built ghost town, and a microcosm of the scandal-hit construction sector under Erdoğan. Will the buyers ever get to move in?

- Ruth Michaelson and Beril Eski

FROM THE ROOFTOP OF THE CASTLE where I'm standing, a panorama of bluegrey turrets stretches into the distance. The effect is like staring into a kaleidoscope. It's a fairytale sight, the intricate white-painted fronts and curved balconies resembling a collection of adultsized dollhouses.

The fantasy quickly falls apart, though. Many of the castles further into the complex have only concrete facades. In between them, spaces intended for manicured lawns have been reclaimed by wildflowers, some so tall their petals and fronds stretch to the first-floor balconies. An eerie silence is broken only by birdsong and the occasional passing car.

It is a warm summer day in August 2023 and there is no one here except a bored security guard and Adem Tekgöz, our tour guide to this bizarre ghost town in the Turkish countryside. Tekgöz represents the Sarot Group, the developer of this crumbling fantasy land, and his surly demeanour suggests he is not keen to show off their work to new visitors. "It gets cold in the winter, so we stopped construction. We're preparing to restart next summer," he says, brushing aside the question of why no work is taking place now. No matter: Tekgöz appears confident that a lick of paint and reconnecting the electricity to the wires strung between the castles will breathe life back into the project.

As we inspect the interiors, where wires dangle from bare ceilings, it's clear some of the rooms have water damage, presumably from the snow that blankets the surrounding valley each winter. Tekgöz's tour also means stumbling across frequent evidence of neglect, including a bloodied bird carcass and what I hope are animal droppings near a concrete cavity in the basement of one castle. In the deserted centre of the complex, one floor of what is supposed to be a shopping mall and luxury hotel is littered with evidence of how much work is still to do: piles of abandoned filigree mouldings and unused turrets lie on the concrete.