The Traditional Houses of Safranbolu/Turkey

Safranbolu is a historic town in the province of Karabük near the black sea. It is well known for its traditional houses, which give us idea of the lifestyle in Turkey in the 18Th and 19Th centuries.
The houses of Safranbolu are two or three floors high with six to nine rooms. Each house is usually occupied by the extended family with grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts and cousins all living under the same roof.
Many of the houses have large gardens with high walls around them. The walls of the lower levels of the houses are built of stone to protect them from the heavy rains and floods, which are typical of the Black Sea Region. The upper walls are made of wood and brick, and the roofs are of tiles. There are balconies and bay windows at the front of the houses with wooden lattices or shutters.
On the ground floor there is an open hall called a hayat. This is an area where the family stores grain and wood. There are also stables to keep the animals, and large fireplaces to boil water for laundry, to pickle, and to make a jam for the winter months.
The second and third floors are the main living areas. On these floors the rooms are either on one or both sides of a lobby called a sofa. The sofa provides people with a workspace and a common area during the day. Family celebrations such as births, circumcisions and weddings also take place in the sofa.
The private rooms are very large. Each one is designed to meet the needs of a small family. In these rooms, they can sit, work, eat, rest, sleep, worship or take a bath. There are cupboards, shelves, wardrobes and bathrooms set into the walls of the rooms. There is also a fireplace in each room. The family can use the built-in divans in front of the windows both as seats and as beds. The room used as a kitchen has a bigger fireplace and cupboards.
The hand-made carvings on the walls and the wooden decorations on the ceilings are all marvellous works of art.