The Burj Al Babas Development

Theme from The Shining

(Important for best viewing experience, click the YouTube video and then the play for the music above. The music from The Shining matches incredible well with the silent YouTube video above.)

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“Even in its current state, the vision for Burj Al Babas is obvious: European luxury in the Middle East.” Katherine McLaughlin, Architectural Digest

As we approach 2025, the phenomenon of great ghost cities is appearing around the world. The most phenomenal ghost cities are in China but Turkey has a strange development called Burj Al Babas midway between Istanbul and Ankara. What was supposed to be a luxurious urban development for wealthy foreigners has become an eerie half-finished ghost suburb in Turkey just outside the Roman spa town of Mudurnu.

Burj Al Babas consists of more than 700 multistory castles, half of which were already sold by 2019. After a series of world events, Turkey’s economy dried up, leaving the village’s fate uncertain. Sitting near the Black Sea, the town is full of587 half-finished, fully abandoned mini castles. This wasn’t the original plan as Burj Al Babas was supposed to be a luxurious, stately urban development offering the look of royal living for anyone willing to shell out anywhere from $370,000 to $500,000 for their own little palace.

As Katherine McLaughlin writes in the April 16, 2024 Architectural Digest, “Even as investors and buyers pulled their money out of the $200 million project in 2019, Sarot Group was confident that it was just a bump in the road and the project would still be completed, according to a report in The New York Times. Of course, the pandemic soon changed life as many knew it, and the project was left abandoned. Though it’s not impossible to say the project could ever resume, it appears unlikely at this point. Architectural Digest did reach out to Sarot Group for comment but has not received a reply at the time of publication.”

McLaughlin continues that, “Burj Al Babas was built by Sarot Properties Group, a luxury developer that had already successfully planned and built two thermal spring hotels in the area. This town was their next act: a collection of European-inspired chateaus for rich Arabs overlooking the Black Sea. Those uninterested in the South of France or the northeastern tip of Spain could enjoy the Mediterranean climate on Gothic-style rooftop terraces overlooking the lush Turkish forest. Not to mention that the spot for the little kingdom had an additional draw. Located in the Roman spa town of Mudurnu, each villa would boast underfloor heating and Jacuzzis on every level.”

A few comments from the YouTube video above are right on. One comment notes “You can have all the money in this world but you can’t buy taste.” Another comment notes “The saddest castles ever built. Whoever developed this has absolutely no concept of urban planning. It looks like a refugee camp where the tents happen to be castles.” And there is the comment going something like “When everyone has a castle, no one is really the King.” But just a weird spot in the world. The music from The Shining was the perfect music to play against the powerful, silent video.

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View the original brochure for Burj Al Babas

Watch a (terrible) video from the seller, the Sarot Corporation