The Famous Aquarium Fence of Çeşme, in Turkey

What’s a wealthy homeowner do when his home doesn’t offer ocean views from the basement? Build a 164-foot aquarium fence around his property, full of fish, of course!

 This was the idea of a millionaire and topographical engineer named Mehmet Ali Gökçeoğlu when he bought his luxurious villa in Çeşme, Turkey but wasn’t able to see the ocean from every floor. In 2005, he built “the world’s most fantastic” aquarium fence around his villa which contains hundreds of fish and has become a huge tourist attraction.

A decade ago, he replaced the metal fence at the front of his property with a 50 meter-long aquarium filled with hundreds of fish and octopuses. Located just a few feet away from the shores of the Aegean Sea, Mehmet Ali Gökçeoğlu's property has become one of the most popular tourist spots in Çeşme. It attracts up to a thousand visitors a day, according to its owner. The villa itself is pretty impressive, but it's not what draws so many people to this place. They come to see the aqua-fence. 

 Building a transparent structure was the easy part of the project. The hard part was linking the aqua-fence to the Aegean through a 400 meter-long buried pipeline, so the water could be changed continuously to keep the aquarium looking clean and its inhabitants happy. Gökçeoğlu hired a team of private divers to perform the task and ended up paying approximately 40,000 Turkish Lira ($21,000) to fulfil his dream. The businessman says seeing people line up outside his house staring at his creation makes it all worthwhile.

To make sure no one comes close enough to damage his fragile fence or steal some fish, the owner set up a surveillance network of 17 cameras with facial recognition. Visitors can look, take photos and record videos, but getting too close will probably set off some kind of alarm.

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