Are You in the Market for an Ancient Turkish City? There’s One For Sale.

Bargylia. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Finally, the gift you can buy for the guy who has everything: his very own ancient Turkish city. A Turkish real estate agency has just listed a 5^th century Aegean town for sale at the completely affordable price of $9.6 million. The city comes with a pretty gnarly Greek origin myth: it’s named Bargylia after the Greek figure Bargylos, who was killed after being kicked by Pegasus, the ancient winged stallion.

The owners of Bargylia, which is located near the popular Turkish resort town of Bodrum, would potentially be able to enjoy some pretty extravagant amenities: an underground ampitheatre, the “remains” of a Roman bath, and a Byzantine-era necropolis (that’s a cemetery for the rest of you plebes); “potentially” because the archaeological site has yet to be excavated. Still, that hasn’t stopped this real estate agency from marketing the city as a summer home to potential buyers.

“A first degree archaeological site, facing the Bird Heaven Lake near the Bo?aziçi Village, with full sea and lake view,” says the real estate ad, according to Turkish news daily Hurriyet.

The agency says there’s already plenty of interest from buyers for the site, even though the law prohibits construction on “first-degree” archeaological sites. The entire affair has provoked the ire of local archaeologists, who hoped the government would be compelled to snap up the property. Unfortunately, a lack of funds means the Culture and Tourism Ministry won’t be able to step in and save Bargylia from becoming the holiday home of some billionaire.

“Private ownership of those sites is obstructing archaeological work. However, the person or persons who acquire those sites can absolutely not conduct any construction activities,” said Binnur Çelebi, a senior member of the Archaeologists’ Association, to Turkish press.