00:53Turkey: Businessman lays out thousands for fish dreams
Turkey: Eccentric businessman lays out thousands for fish dreams
A successful businessman and topographical engineer, Mehmet Ali Gökçeoğlu, has attracted thousands of tourist to Çeşme, Izmir after fulfilling his 'dream-of-blue' and fortifying his luxurious villa with a 50-meter-long (165 ft) aquarium wall housing more than 1,000 fish including sea bream, eels and octopus.
The aqua wall is connected to the Aegean sea, which lies just a few feet away from his home, with a 400-meter-long (1,312 ft) pipeline, allowing the marine creatures to swim all the way around the seaside property. The salt water wall is almost a complete reflection of the Aegean Sea, creating an under water gateway into the mansion.
Gökçeoğlu says that building the aquarium wall around his house was relatively easy in comparison to building the 400-meter-long pipe needed to maintain the aquarium's filter system. Gökçeoğlu hired a team of professional divers to perform the task, costing him approximately 40,000 Turkish Lira ($21,000/ €16,000). However he says that the tourist interest and pride it has generated makes the money no object.
The structural engineer designed and built the house and grounds himself, including a network of 17 security cameras which operate around the clock keeping watch over the installation.
00:53Turkey: Eccentric businessman lays out thousands for fish dreams
A successful businessman and topographical engineer, Mehmet Ali Gökçeoğlu, has attracted thousands of tourist to Çeşme, Izmir after fulfilling his 'dream-of-blue' and fortifying his luxurious villa with a 50-meter-long (165 ft) aquarium wall housing more than 1,000 fish including sea bream, eels and octopus.
The aqua wall is connected to the Aegean sea, which lies just a few feet away from his home, with a 400-meter-long (1,312 ft) pipeline, allowing the marine creatures to swim all the way around the seaside property. The salt water wall is almost a complete reflection of the Aegean Sea, creating an under water gateway into the mansion.
Gökçeoğlu says that building the aquarium wall around his house was relatively easy in comparison to building the 400-meter-long pipe needed to maintain the aquarium's filter system. Gökçeoğlu hired a team of professional divers to perform the task, costing him approximately 40,000 Turkish Lira ($21,000/ €16,000). However he says that the tourist interest and pride it has generated makes the money no object.
The structural engineer designed and built the house and grounds himself, including a network of 17 security cameras which operate around the clock keeping watch over the installation.