Why Everyone Is Obsessed With Abandoned Castles In Turkey Right Now

You’ve probably seen the photos. Hundreds of identical, Disney-style mini-castles sitting in a valley, looking like a suburban fever dream gone wrong. That’s Burj Al Babas. It’s the poster child for abandoned castles in Turkey, but honestly, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Turkey is basically a massive open-air museum where the "exhibits" are often left to crumble under the sun without a single velvet rope in sight.

People come for the beaches in Antalya or the hot air balloons in Cappadocia. They miss the weird stuff. The lonely stuff.

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Turkey’s geography is a chaotic layer cake of empires. Hittites, Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks, Ottomans—everyone built a fort, and then everyone eventually walked away. Some of these spots are "managed" ruins where you pay 200 Lira to enter. Others? You just hike up a hill in the middle of nowhere and find yourself standing on a 1,000-year-old battlement with nothing but goats for company. It’s haunting. It’s beautiful. It’s also kinda heartbreaking when you see how fast they’re disappearing.

The Ghost Town That Wasn't Supposed To Be

Let’s talk about Burj Al Babas because we have to. Located near the town of Mudurnu in the Bolu province, this isn't an ancient relic. It’s a modern tragedy.

The Yerdelen brothers, the developers behind the Sarot Group, had a vision. They wanted to build 732 luxury villas shaped like French chateaux for wealthy Gulf investors. They got pretty far, too. About 587 were actually completed. But then the Turkish economy hit a massive wall, inflation skyrocketed, and the company filed for bankruptcy in 2018. Now? It’s a ghost town of empty turrets.

Walking through here is surreal. It feels like a glitch in the Matrix. You have these gothic, pointed roofs and ornate balconies repeated over and over again, stretching across a muddy valley. There are no people. No shops. No life. Just the sound of wind whistling through PVC window frames. Local residents in Mudurnu have mixed feelings about it. Some hate that it ruined the aesthetic of their traditional Ottoman-style town, while others are just sad about the wasted money. It’s the ultimate symbol of a construction boom that popped too soon.

Why Abandoned Castles In Turkey Are Different From Europe

In France or England, an abandoned castle is usually a "stately home" that someone couldn't afford the taxes on. In Turkey, it’s different. These structures are often military outposts built into the sheer faces of cliffs.

Take the Rum Castle (Rumkale) on the Euphrates River. It’s not "abandoned" in the sense that people forgot it existed, but it’s unreachable by land because of the Birecik Dam reservoir. You have to take a boat. Sitting on a massive peninsula of rock, it looks like something straight out of Game of Thrones. It was once the seat of the Armenian Patriarch, and the masonry is still there, defiant against the rising water levels.

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The Crusader Legacy

Then there’s the Corycus sea castle. It’s sitting in the Mediterranean, just off the coast of Mersin. While the "Land Castle" on the shore gets some foot traffic, the sea castle is often left to the elements. These aren't just piles of rocks. They represent the shifting borders of the Byzantine Empire and the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.

You’ll notice that many abandoned castles in Turkey share a specific architectural DNA:

• Spolia. This is when builders take stones from older Roman temples to build their new castle walls. You might see a beautiful marble frieze stuck sideways into a rough limestone wall.
• Cisterns. Since many were built on high, dry peaks, the water systems are incredible engineering feats.
• Inaccessibility. If it’s easy to reach, it’s probably a museum. The "true" abandoned ones require a 4x4 or some serious leg work.

The Anatolian Interior: Fortresses You’ve Never Heard Of

Most travel blogs stay on the coast. That’s a mistake. If you head into eastern Anatolia, the scale of abandonment changes.

In the Kars province, near the border with Armenia, sits the ruins of Ani. While Ani is technically an "ancient city," its citadel and various fortresses are the peak of medieval engineering. It was the "City of 1001 Churches," but its defensive walls are what really fascinate me. They are crumbling. Huge chunks of basalt rock lie where they fell centuries ago.

Further south, near Lake Van, you have the Hoşap Castle. It’s perched on a jagged outcrop. Built in 1643 by a local Kurdish chieftain named Mahmudi Süleyman, it looks like a desert fortress from a movie. It has a massive iron gate that still exists, though the interior is a maze of collapsed rooms and hidden passages. Why is it abandoned? Simply because the world moved on. The strategic importance of the Silk Road faded, and the castle became too expensive to live in.

The Logistics of Finding These Places

Honestly, finding these spots is half the fun. You can't just put "abandoned castle" into Google Maps and expect a paved parking lot.

I’ve spent hours driving through the Taurus Mountains, looking for the walls of Mamure Castle. While Mamure is well-preserved, there are dozens of smaller, unnamed watchtowers scattered along the coast between Alanya and Mersin. Most of them don't have Wikipedia pages. They don't have signs. They just exist.

If you’re going to explore, you need to be smart.

1. Check the terrain. Turkish soil can be incredibly loose, especially around ruins.
2. Snakes are real. Especially in the summer, ruins are a haven for vipers. Watch where you put your hands.
3. Local permission. Even if a place looks abandoned, it might be on someone’s grazing land. A quick "Merhaba" to a local shepherd goes a long way.

Why These Ruins Matter For SEO and Tourism

People are tired of curated experiences. The surge in searches for abandoned castles in Turkey isn't just about history buffs; it's about "Urbex" (urban exploration) culture. There is a raw, visceral feeling you get when you touch a wall that was built to withstand a siege 800 years ago, and there isn't a "Do Not Touch" sign in sight.

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However, there’s a ticking clock. The Turkish government is slowly "restoring" many of these sites. Sometimes, this is great—it saves the structure. Other times? It’s a disaster. There have been several scandals where historical castles were "restored" using shiny new white marble and cement, making them look like modern budget hotels. This "restoration fail" trend has actually made the truly abandoned, untouched sites even more valuable to photographers and historians.

The Economic Reality

It’s expensive to save a castle. Turkey has thousands of them. When the choice is between building a new hospital or stabilizing a 12th-century tower in a village with 50 people, the hospital wins every time.

This is why international organizations like the World Monuments Fund sometimes step in, but they can't save everything. The abandonment is a natural part of the lifecycle of these buildings. They served a purpose—defense—that no longer exists. Now, they serve as landmarks for shepherds and nesting grounds for hawks.

How To See Them Before They're Gone

If you actually want to do this, don't just fly to Istanbul. Istanbul has the Rumeli Hisarı, which is cool, but it’s definitely not abandoned.

Instead, fly into Gaziantep or Adana. Rent a car. Head toward the mountains. The "Castles of Cilicia" is a real thing—a network of fortifications that guarded the mountain passes.

• Yılankale (Snake Castle): Legend says a half-human, half-snake creature lived here. It’s terrifyingly steep and incredible.
• Anazarbus: An entire Roman city and castle that is largely unexcavated. It’s massive, and you’ll likely be the only person there.

The silence at these sites is heavy. It’s not the silence of a park; it’s the silence of a place that used to be loud with the sounds of swords, horses, and trade, now completely reclaimed by the earth.

Actionable Steps for the Aspiring Explorer

• Download Offline Maps: Cell service is non-existent in the deep valleys of the Bolu or Hakkari provinces where many ruins hide. Use Google Maps offline or an app like Gaia GPS.
• Learn Basic Turkish: Knowing how to ask "Where is the old castle?" (Eski kale nerede?) is vital.
• Respect the Stone: Never take "souvenirs." Not only is it illegal (Turkish heritage laws are incredibly strict, and you will be arrested at the airport if you have artifacts in your bag), but it ruins the site for everyone else.
• Check Local News: For places like Burj Al Babas, access can change. Sometimes it’s fenced off due to safety concerns; other times, the guards might let you take photos for a small tip.
• Prioritize Safety over Photos: Many of these structures have hidden cisterns or "murder holes" that are now just deep, uncovered pits. Test the ground before you step.

The reality of abandoned castles in Turkey is that they are disappearing. Whether through "modernization" or simple erosion, the window to see these places in their raw, ruined state is closing. Start with the Mersin-Adana coastline and work your way inland. You’ll find things that aren't in any guidebook.

Don't expect luxury. Expect dust, steep climbs, and a profound sense of how small we are in the face of time. That’s the real draw. It’s not just about the stone; it’s about the stories that nobody is left to tell. Bring a good pair of boots and a lot of water. Anatolia doesn't give up its secrets easily.