Buoyed on by a booming property market, Sarot Group, the developer of the project, envisaged a whimsical and romantic spa resort with 732 villas reportedly inspired among other things by the Château de Chenonceau in France's Loire Valley (pictured) and Istanbul's conical Galata Tower. The firm plumped for an idyllic 250-acre site just outside the historic town of Mudurnu in the hills of northwestern Turkey, and construction on the fanciful $200 million (£144m) development began in around 2011.

Sarot Group, which is headed by brothers Mezher and Mehmet Yerdelen together with business partner Bulent Yilmaz, wasted no time putting together a killer brochure to woo their target market: wealthy Gulf tourists. They opted for an Arabic name for the project – 'Burj' means 'tower' or 'turret' in the language, while 'Al Babas' refers to a renowned spa in the region.

This particular part of Turkey has long been popular with visitors from the Gulf, who are drawn to its pleasant climate, verdant scenery and tranquil spa towns. At the centre of the development was to have been a sprawling leisure complex housed in a neo-classical building, featuring architecture nods to the US Capitol, St Peter's Basilica in Rome and London's St Paul's Cathedral.

The thermal springs that bubble beneath the development are famed for their restorative properties, and Sarot Group planned to make the most of this remarkable resource by decking out the central complex with a number of jaw-dropping features, including an aqua park complete with water slides and streams, indoor pools, Turkish baths, saunas and steam rooms. A sustainable resource, the waters would have been used to heat the complex too.

No expense was to have been spared on the interiors of Burj Al Babas, which judging by this render of an indoor covered pool under one of the building's domes, would have been dripping in expensive marble. As well as housing the spa facilities, the hub of the resort was slated to feature a whole host of other lavish amenities.

Each of the proposed 732 castles was designed in the same whimsical architectural style, as though straight out of a storybook. Consultant Architect Naci Yoruk has said that it was the clients who insisted on the distinctive château design. Needless to say, he went all-out, throwing in Disneyesque turrets, mansard roofs, dormers, balconies with stone balustrades, and copious decoration.

The fairytale homes were to have been equally if not more impressive on the inside, with rooms boasting high ceilings, ornate plasterwork, parquet flooring and other fine finishes, and a sweeping spiral staircase leading to the upper floor and stunning rooftop terrace. 

A Jacuzzi where homeowners could bathe in healing spa waters was to have been installed on each floor, and buyers were given the option of an indoor pool and lift. With construction off the ground, Sarot Group opened an office in Kuwait and set about marketing their utopian vision, with the villas priced between a relatively affordable $370,000 (£266k) and $500,000 (£359k).

Meanwhile, local opposition to the controversial project was mounting. While the mayor of Mudurnu Mehmet İnegöl is said to be 100% behind the development, other members of the community have reportedly criticised it, arguing that the mini châteaux are completely out of place and would end up blighting the landscape. A potential UNESCO World Heritage Site, Mudurnu dates back to Roman times and is celebrated for its distinctive Byzantine and Ottoman architecture.

The Turkish government has since introduced regulations designed to preserve the historical integrity of the nation's cities, towns and villages, and prevent similar projects from making it off the drawing board. However, the rules came in after work had begun on Burj Al Babas, and construction continued unabated, with a peak workforce of 8,000 toiling away on the development.

The mayor attempted to assuage locals' concerns, assuring them that the development would be hidden away in a valley outside the town. But the alleged destruction of 82 black pine and oak trees, and dumping of excavated soil on 6.5 acres of pristine woodland have further infuriated Mudurnu residents already up in arms about the resort's incongruous architecture.

An official criminal complaint was made against Burj Al Babas in 2015. The indictment was issued the following year and a lawsuit accusing Sarot Group of environmental damage was filed in 2018. The case is, by all accounts, still making its way through the local courts, but this wasn't the sole problem the developers were dealing with...

During the early stages of the development, the fairytale castles were selling like hotcakes and all was boding well for the project from a financial point of view. Deep-pocketed buyers from Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia were lining up to invest in the development and secure their very own French-style castle. But the storm clouds were brewing...

The Turkish economy was tanking and plummeting oil prices were hitting the developer's target market hard in the wallet. Sales began to dry up but building work pressed on. By summer 2018, 587 mini châteaux had been constructed, albeit in differing states of completion, though only around 350 had been sold. 

Compounding the developer's money woes, a large proportion of buyers were reportedly struggling to pay the cost of the villas. The project was up to its eyeballs in debt and Sarot Group was staring into a gaping financial black hole. With the company's debt burden climbing to $27 million (£19.4m), it needed to offload the remaining mini castles, and fast. Show villas, looking rather more basic than the brochure renders promised, were fitted out, but business remained far from brisk.

In June 2018, Sarot Group applied for a concordat, which is an agreement that lets 'well-intentioned and honest' debtors pay back part of what they owe to appease creditors and stave off bankruptcy. The court reportedly gave the firm three months to sort out its debts in accordance with the terms of the agreement, but Sarot Group was unable to cough up the necessary cash and the deadline passed.

As with many abandoned mansions found across the world, costs began spiralling out of control. Sarot Group asked for permission to restructure the outstanding debts, but the court refused and in November 2018 it imposed a bankruptcy order instead. Construction ground to a halt despite pleas for it to carry on. 

At the time, Sarot Group said that the company only needed to sell an additional 100 villas to pay off its debts. “The project is valued at $200 million,” Sarot Group Chairman Mehmet Emin Yerdelen commented in November 2018. “We only need to sell 100 villas to pay off our debt. I believe we can get over this crisis in 4-5 months and partially inaugurate the project in 2019.”

Yet sadly for the group, nothing much seems to have happened in the years that followed Yerdelen's positive comments. Burj Al Babas has pretty much become an abandoned ghost town, and although the court did eventually allow Sarot Group to continue marketing the completed mini châteaux after the firm's lawyers lodged an appeal, the project has effectively been put on indefinite hold.

In 2018, in a bid to entice overseas property investors to boost the flagging market, the Turkish government acted to reduce the minimum property investment required for a foreign national to secure citizenship from $1 million (£719k) to just $250,000 (£180k), but Burj Al Babas still found itself floundering. Now, the abandoned buildings sit empty in an eerie landscape of seemingly never-ending houses.

It's conceivable that some buyers may have been put off by the lack of privacy the villas provide. While each has a small garden, the mini chateaux stand almost shoulder to shoulder, with little space separating one from the other. “They ask for walls,” Mehmet Yerdelen told the New York Times, “but I say no, there will be trees instead.” 

The New York Times also spoke to Imad Yousef, a real estate broker in Kuwait, who has decided to look on the bright side and remain positive about the development. “I hope to make some money, and I will use it myself,” he said. “When the project is finished, God willing, it will be amazing.” 

Other buyers, as you can imagine, aren't quite so optimistic. “In 2013, I purchased a timeshare studio for 13,000 Turkish Liras. I fully paid the cost. My timeshare was supposed to be delivered in 2015,” investor Nilüfer Önce told Hürriyet Daily News. Another called for his money to be refunded.

A breakthrough came in November 2019. By this point, Sarot Group had discharged 50% of its debts, persuading the court to reverse the bankruptcy decision. Permission was granted for the construction of the remaining villas to resume, much to the delight of the developer and the project's investors.

Construction was stalled again over the winter due to inclement weather conditions and then the COVID pandemic struck, which likely added a further very significant delay due to lockdown and other disease-mitigating measures. Still, Burj Al Babas hasn't been short of visitors, and the abandoned dream homes have fast turned into a cult attraction.

In February 2020, conceptual designer and director Alexandre Humbert shot a short at Burj Al Babas, reimagining the place as a theme park called Sleeping Beauties where visitors stump up a small entrance fee to photograph the empty villas. Meanwhile, last autumn the music video for Meduza's smash hit 'Lose Control', which has an edgy, post-apocalyptic feel, was filmed in and around the modern ghost town. It currently has more than 94 million YouTube views.

The site has also attracted its fair share of urbex enthusiasts. In December, intrepid vlogger and BBC's The Travel Show host Mike Corey paid Burj Al Babas a visit with a couple of buddies in tow, and posted a video of the experience on his Fearless & Far YouTube channel, racking up more than 2.5 million views for his efforts.

If, or when, exactly this deserted development will be completed is anyone's guess. Mezher Yerdelen vowed to have the development done and dusted in 2021, but the pledge was made before the coronavirus pandemic hit, which will no doubt have stalled construction even further.

Given the absence of activity at the site, going by the most recent images of the development, alongside the project's super-quiet social media accounts, which have been more or less dormant for months, the likelihood of the development being completed by the end of 2021 seems decidedly slim. Still, we hope there will be a happy ending yet for Burj Al Babas. Sarot Group did not respond to requests for comment for this story. 

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