Locals still pay tax on houses in ancient city

DENİZLİ - Anatolia News Agency

There are 1,178 titled properties on the 70 hectares of the Tabae ancient city. DHA photo

In the town of Kale in the Aegean province of Denizli, nearly 4,000 people can neither sell nor use the properties they pay tax on in the ancient city of Tabae. The mayor of Kale, İsmail Yarımca, told Anatolia news agency that even after ancient city was declared an archaeological site in 1985, it still remained the property of locals in title.

Big problem in town

There are 1,178 properties on the 70 hectares of the ancient city, Yarımca said. “This is a big problem in our town. The state declared the area an archaeological site in 1985 but did not expropriate it.

Freeholders keep paying taxes for their ruined houses in this area. Four thousand people hold titles to Tabae land. And those who complain about this situation could transfer or donate the deed to the government to be excluded from the tax.”

Yarımca said,“It had been used as a settlement in the era of the ancient city of Karya, and in the Hellene, Roman, Byzantium, Seljuk, Ottoman and even Republican eras as well. Another characteristic of the historical city is underground cities.”