After having our fun and feeling very well exercised we continued our journey to the delightful old city of Safronbolu with its beautifully restored Ottoman houses.We had been wanting to visit this city since we first arrived in Turkey as we had heard so much about it and we were certainly not disappointed!
There are 1008 registered historical artifacts in the Old Town so no the wonder it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1994. The Old Mosque, Old Bath and Suleyman Pasha Medrese were all built in 1322.
Safronbolu was an important "caravan" stop on the main East West Silk Road route from 13th to the early 20th century when the railway commenced. The spice, "saffron" was grown and traded in this area hence the derivation of the name of the city.
There is so much to see and do in this ancient city that we would have liked to have stayed for many days but as we were on a tour we had to continue on never-the-less we saw a tremendous amount while there.
(Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them,)
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| Street view and the Old Mosque |
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| Crazy Shell Greatures in Central Anatolia! |
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| Icecream and Lollipop Vendor |
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| Too Cute |
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| Miniture Ottoman Houses for Sale! |
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| Typical Street Scene |
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| Fran wandering down the street under the "chatter box balconies" |
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| Handmade Turkish Shoes |
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| Silver and Stone Vendor |
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| Our Lunch spot.
In addtion to visiting Safronbolu we also vistited an old town nearby where there were a number of re-furbiished traditional Ottoman houses made from wood and plaster. The owners showed us around and inside a number of them and we were struct by the amazing woodwork. All of us had to pose in the exact same spot where Fran and Tom are sitting in the photo below.
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| Captured! |
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| Our group inside of the the houses. |
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Part of a very old laundry.
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| Traditional Ottoman house.
There was also a number of restaurants and stores selling "traditional items" and of course a lot of "tourist junk" However, it was fun wandering around taking way to many photographs.
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| Just for the tourists. |
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| Near one of the restaurants. |
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| Tiny store selling dried herbs. |
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