ANKARA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- If you have enough money, part of a 2,500-year-old city in south Turkey, is up for grabs for 35 million Turkish liras, or around 8.3 million U.S. dollars.
The ancient city of Bargylia, located near Bodrum on the Turkish west coast, has been the archaeological site from the fourth century B.C. and is now a popular resort area visited by millions of tourists each year.
Spread across 133 hectares (330 acres) of land, the archaeological site has been a private property since 1927.
It is said to house an underground amphitheater, the remains of a Roman bath and a necropolis from the Byzantine era.
As no construction is permitted in first-degree archaeological sites, no excavations have been made on the site yet.
Archaeologists want the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry to step in and be the potential buyer of the ancient city to ensure its protection, in order to stop it from becoming a holiday site like many others of this very archeological rich region.
Contacted by Xinhua, the ministry didn't wish to comment on the issue, and only said that for the moment an expropriation scheme was being examined.
According to the ministry's website, there are roughly 192 archeological sites in the province of Mugla where Bodrum is located, and only 22 of these sites have been taken under protection, which is a worrying number according to experts.
In 2015, when the site was offered for sale, archaeologists called on the culture and tourism ministry to expropriate archaeological sites such as Bargylia in order to ensure their protection.
"Unfortunately we don't have enough money to even negotiate a transaction. It is known that archeological sites are only expropriated during urban projects," said a senior member of the Archaeologists Association to Xinhua.
But since the Bargylia site is a first-degree archeological site, the future owner or owners would not be permitted to construct anything there, he explained, adding that treasure hunters have already caused substantial damage to the site.
Despite Turkey's strict laws against unauthorized excavation of ancient relics, including heavy fines and even imprisonment, illegal excavations persist in Turkey.
One of the shareholders of the land, the 87-year-old Huseyin Ucpinar, told Hurriyet newspaper the land has been on sale for years, but there had been a disagreement among the shareholders.
In 2015, the ancient city was again put on sale, this time for 22 million Turkish liras (5.1 millions U.S. dollars) but the funds fell short of buyers.
"I am unable to protest this area alone. The (Turkish) state should do something about it and protect this site," the elderly man said, adding that he had disputes with other co-owners about this property.
The city of Bargylia was said by historians and legends to have been founded by Bellerophon, a hero of Greek mythology, in honor of his companion Bargylos, who had been killed by a kick from the mythological winged horse Pegasus.
Near Bargylia was the Temple of Artemis Cindyas. The Greek geographer and philosopher Strabo, who lived in Asia Minor during the transitional period of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire, reported the local belief that rain would fall around the temple but never touch it. Artemis Cindyas and Pegasus appear on the coinage of Bargylia.
It is unclear how a site of this proportion came under private ownership. One of the reasons may be because of the legacy of the great and tragic population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the 1920's after the fall of the Ottoman empire.
As part of the treaty of Lausanne in 1923, Greece and the newly created Republic of Turkey agreed to uproot two million people in a massive population exchange, an operation which had lasting effects on both populations, Orthodox Christians and Muslims.
Some lands and properties were distributed by the state to the exchangees.
