Kayakoy village stretches along the hillside outside of Fethiye and has an interesting story, as well as a great place to visit. During the 18th century, Greek people arrived from the Dodecanese Islands and founded the town Levissi, building approximately 3.500 homes they lived here for centuries peacefully with their Turkish neighbours. After the Greco-Turkish war (1919 - 1922) there followed in 1923 the "population exchange" where the Turkish population in Greece returned to Turkey and vice versa and the population of Levissi were forced to leave the town. After the departure of the Greeks, Levissi was renamed Kayakoy after the nearby valley, Kaya Cukuru (pothole), and vacant houses were populated with the repatriated Turkish people. However, they did not like Kayakoy as they were farmers and there was no land to farm or places to put their livestock, and so they left also. After the second time of abandonment, Kayakoy became the largest abandoned Greek village in Asia Minor and got the name Kayakoy Ghost Town or Kayakoy Village.
Kaykoy Ghost Town was recognized as one of the World's TOP 10 Ghost Towns according to National Geographic in 2005. Today Kayakoy Ghost Town is an open-air museum with about 500 preserved houses and three churches. The largest of them is the Basilica of Panayia Pyrgiotissa, built in 1888, and is located on the right of the main street. You can see the remains of Kayakoy in the movie "Water Diviner" as some scenes were filmed there.
Ölüdeniz is located close to Kayakoy and is known for the blue lagoon of Ölüdeniz Tabiat Parkı, where the water is turquoise and aquamarine, and the wide, white Belcekız Beach, the lagoon is a national nature reserve. It is overlooked by the Babadağ mountain from where paragliders take to the skies and if you do not want to have a go, then watching them coming down is just spectacular.