 |
The Location
KAYAKOY
The kaya valley is just a ten-minute drive from Olu Deniz yet a million miles away in terms of ambience and the typical visitor of this area.
The valley floor is surrounded by the peaks of the mountains which stretch to the very ends of the Fethiye Peninsula. Tracks and single track roads wind along the valley floor through tiny hamlets untill reaching the secluded beach at Gemiler.
The Greek village of Kaya was abandoned following the forced exchange of populations agreed between Turkey and Greece in 1922. Until then it had been a thriving community for centuries and at the time of the exchange had a population of 20.000.
Today Kayakoy looks like a "Ghost Town" where two churches and a school are in the process of restoration with the aim of establishing a village of peace in the region.
On the slopes, there are stone houses built in typical Mediterranean style, not overshadowing one another, schools, churches, chapels, workshops and other buildings, as well as intercrossing narrow streets, all of which are reminiscent of an architectural laboratory.
Kayakoyu is under protection as a prominent sample of the Anatolian cultural mosaic and will become a village of friendship, peace, science and arts in the near future, when the restoration and planning efforts are completed.
