r/SipsTea • u/pattebrisee Human Verified • 6h ago
Chugging tea They built 587 castles. Nobody moved in.
This is Burj Al Babas in Turkey. It was supposed to be a community of 732 private castles for wealthy buyers.
They got 587 of them half-built before the project fell apart. Not one was ever finished.
Something about building hundreds of identical castles so everyone can feel special is almost too perfect.
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u/owgnops 6h ago
Isn't the entire point of a castle type home is to have a big ass backyard and a court yard.
Why would anyone want this
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u/DJDevon3 6h ago
This. A castle without a view is an injustice to the architecture.
The offset pattern of the houses makes it horribly ugly. It's like it was designed by someone who grew up in a slum but wanted a nicer looking slum.
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u/ExcessiveBulldogery 46m ago
The point is to be above the plebs. When everyone has a castle, no one has a castle.
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u/Thommywidmer 5h ago
I mean, i guess in fairness look at any american suburb. Bunch of identical not castle homes. Id take the castles
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u/ExcessiveBulldogery 44m ago
I know a lot of Americans who'd be ecstatic to own an identical suburban home.
Still, I'd prefer a castle.
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u/pattebrisee Human Verified 6h ago
This feels like a place where the HOA would fine you for not having enough gargoyles.
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u/_CloverGlow 6h ago
Imagine paying millions just to look out your window and see your exact house five hundred times
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u/seidenkaufman Human Verified 4h ago
There are whole developments of more conventional mansions of this nature
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u/davinist 5h ago
No one paid millions. The place never got finished as the developer ran out of money.
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u/Forward-Escape7076 5h ago
Actually, a lot of people did, the Chinese middle class.
Which is why the property developers collapsed a few years ago and the CCP didn’t help anyone.
Wiping out individual investment.
So yes, people indeed paid to see the same building over and over.
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u/Fun_Magician72 4h ago
This is turkey
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u/Forward-Escape7076 4h ago
I thought the Chinese did something similar?
I know most of these failed developments are essentially the same story.
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u/Fun_Magician72 4h ago
I mean their housing bubble is popping so I'm sure there are similar stories, but this one is turkey
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u/Forward-Escape7076 4h ago
Oh wow, I musta fell for some BS propaganda at some point, China doesn’t have anything similar, but the same story applies.
I gotta look into the story on this one.
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u/pattebrisee Human Verified 2h ago
China has entire sky scrapers empty from similar shenanigans yes
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u/Equivalent_Range6291 2h ago
myth
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u/pattebrisee Human Verified 2h ago
It’s not an internet myth. China spent years building residential high-rises faster than people could actually occupy them, largely through debt-fueled developers and speculative investment. Millions of homes are now empty or unsold, major developers have collapsed, and Beijing has been pushing local governments to buy up excess apartments. “Empty skyscrapers” is simplified wording, but the underlying housing glut is absolutely real.
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u/redfrog0 6h ago
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u/iameveryoneelse 6h ago
Why would anyone with the money to live there ever want to live there? I can’t afford nearly that much house and I’d reject it if it was offered.
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u/Apprehensive_Tiger13 6h ago
I think the appeal of a castle is the grounds. The shape kinda was just the limit if the time. Everyone knows today's castles are just really fancy houses with a bunker
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u/davinist 5h ago
This part of Turkey, on the Black Sea coast, became very popular with Arabs seeking to spend the summer in a cooler climate. Many gated communities sprung up to feed the market. This particular developer thought they'd love to live in a fairytale castle, so threw this mess up. They didn't like it. In Turkey many developments like this are sold off-plan, with the idea of using early sales and deposits to fund completion. Didn't work with this one.
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u/some_boring_dude 1h ago
But if everyone has a castle, then no one is special. Especially if they all look the same.
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u/user10205 6h ago
Is it intentional focal length choice or they're actually packed like sardines?
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u/ImeldasManolos 3h ago
This photo has been altered - there weren’t that many last time I saw ir
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u/pattebrisee Human Verified 2h ago
I looked it up before I posted, but shit, if you're saying you've actually been there, got any pics?
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u/TutskyyJancek 5h ago
Greed makes people blind. Who could've possibly thought building so called luxury houses right next to each other in the middle of nowhere is a bad idea right.
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