Kayaköy, Turkey
Before World War I, Kayaköy in southwestern Turkey was a thriving Greek Orthodox town with tens of thousands of residents. After the Greco-Turkish War, most inhabitants fled or were forced to leave, and roughly 350 homes were abandoned. Over the decades the empty stone houses and narrow streets have remained largely untouched, and UNESCO has since recognized Kayaköy as a symbol of friendship and peace. Today the village is a poignant open-air museum, offering visitors a quiet, human-scale reminder of population shifts and cultural loss.