Last summer, I was lucky enough to take a ride through the hills and valleys of the
Karaburun peninsula, near beautiful Smyrna...
Karaburun stands right near Cesme, a popular holiday center that gets crowded every summer with up to a million visitors. In stark contrast to Cesme, however, Karaburun is nearly depopulated, and its beautiful hills are dotted with a myriad abandoned or semi-abandoned ex-Greek villages.
Most of these villages are scantily populated, and have numerous ghost buildings left over from the departed Greeks.
In some of these villages, we saw extremely well-crafted mosques, the likes of which were hard to see even in big cities like Istanbul. Particularly interesting in their minarets was the presence of wrought-iron "flags" that pointed the way to Mecca. The locals say that these mosques were probably the work of bygone Greek or Armenian architects.
One of the most beautiful villages in the peninsula. This one is still inhabited, almost all the houses were in use.
However, Karaburun is not exclusively made up of such isolated villages. The peninsula also houses one large town of the same name, which has a distinctly Fellini-like charm and surreality. We stopped at the "Mermaid Cafe" for a few drinks.
Having seen our fair share of wonders, we then departed Karaburun through the ever-winding tangle of roads that led back to Cesme.
Last summer, I was lucky enough to take a ride through the hills and valleys of the Karaburun peninsula, near beautiful Smyrna...
Karaburun stands right near Cesme, a popular holiday center that gets crowded every summer with up to a million visitors. In stark contrast to Cesme, however, Karaburun is nearly depopulated, and its beautiful hills are dotted with a myriad abandoned or semi-abandoned ex-Greek villages.
Most of these villages are scantily populated, and have numerous ghost buildings left over from the departed Greeks.
In some of these villages, we saw extremely well-crafted mosques, the likes of which were hard to see even in big cities like Istanbul. Particularly interesting in their minarets was the presence of wrought-iron "flags" that pointed the way to Mecca. The locals say that these mosques were probably the work of bygone Greek or Armenian architects.
One of the most beautiful villages in the peninsula. This one is still inhabited, almost all the houses were in use.
However, Karaburun is not exclusively made up of such isolated villages. The peninsula also houses one large town of the same name, which has a distinctly Fellini-like charm and surreality. We stopped at the "Mermaid Cafe" for a few drinks.
Having seen our fair share of wonders, we then departed Karaburun through the ever-winding tangle of roads that led back to Cesme.
