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Tales of Touring Turkey by Fred Moore:
© 2011 by Author
Click Photos to Enlarge
 We’re in Ortahisar today discovering the Kultur Muze (culture museum). We’ve either missed this or it’s never been open before. As we enter the building, there are two mannequins sitting in the vestibule. There’s an empty chair between them;I can’t resist, I sit down with them and Carol snaps a photo. We have to ascend a staircase just inside that rises above the mannequins. We’re in a very large restaurant on the upper floor and cross over the terrace to get to the museum entrance. The office is empty but open; I step back outside of the office and a lady notices me and comes rushing over to greet us. She tells us the fee is 10 Lira for two; I pay her and she escorts us through another smaller vestibule to the inside museum entry around the corner from her office.
The interior is quite interesting, there’s a central hall (a massive corridor really) several meters wide and then individual rooms off each side. This is quite reminiscent of a Roman Bazaar except this is a wood structure not stone. There’s a photo exhibition on display in the hall as well; a female photographer has taken some stunning photos of the flowers and insects of Cappadocia. We’ve come to visit the museum though so I’ll concentrate my narrative on its content.
  The first room (alcove) on our right is a construction diorama; it’s a depiction of two men, one using a pick to shape a cave dwelling entrance shown at right, the other a mason putting the finishing touches on a large brick arch at left. These are typical crafts for this area’s structural buildings. There are a number of cave dwellings here in this region; Cappadocia was created millenniums ago by volcanic eruptions leaving vast amounts of ash in their wake. This soft stone-like material is called tuff; it makes carving homes in the rock quite easy (think carving a bar of soap – it is almost that easy!).
 Again, keep in mind these dioramas are individual static displays of local crafts and home life in this central region of Turkey. Next, on our right, is an agricultural scene. There are two ladies here; one using a grinding stone for grain, the other shocking the grain harvest. This scene would actually be a typical court yard or even open field scene in a traditional Anatolian area; you will also note the ox cart in the center of the display. These women, like their men folk, would be working sun up to sun down usually. Women tend to the family farm as much as the men; many times we’ve seen women minding the cows or goats while knitting or crocheting. Life in the villages is still quite labor-intensive and all family members take part in the performance of agricultural work.
 Next we see the kitchen of a more affluent family and the lady is busy hand kneading pita bread. This kitchen is very well stocked with utilitarian pots, pans and dishes; far more than the typical village home would normally have, I think. The large flat pan (generally heavy copper) the lady is working on would be the “table” the family would gather round for meals as well as the work counter for the ladies’ daily preparations. You can see by the mantel that she has collected many herbs and other dried vegetables for meals or maybe medicines.
 The next room brings you into the salon or living room; you see this woman is carding wool and has the trappings of kilim/carpet making at her disposal. The loom behind her would have been typical for a village home 40 or 50 years ago. It wouldn’t be so much anymore because the modern generation isn’t interested in these “old” traditional crafts, so they’re fading into antiquity. On the opposite wall is another loom, this one with the beginnings of a wonderful carpet; it would have been unusual to see both of these in one home unless the family was making carpets or kilims for sale.
 Our next room would again be a courtyard scene; the woman center stage is making pekmez (a fruity molasses-like syrup usually made from grapes and eaten at breakfast like we might eat jam or jelly); the other lady is probably coming to relieve her. This stuff gets pretty thick and hard to stir after awhile.
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As we turn and start down the other side of the museum we find the more formal salon (far left) with Dad playing the saz, mom embroidering and the young lad at the table.
In our next exhibit we again have the salon but this time it’s an engagement celebration with coffee, ayran and probably tea. You will note the water pipe at the feet of one of the gentleman; they are still around and very much a part of some circles even though smoking is lessening even in Turkey.
  In the bridal room we see the bride sitting on the bed and her dowry on display; towels, pillow cases, scarves and other household linens.
In the next room we find the baby cradle and more handcrafts, the handwork done by these village women is exquisite.
This is well worth a few minutes of your time; I would like to have had a brochure but none were available – fortunately we know most of the cultural ways of Turkey and this highlights this region well.
Additional Photos Inside the Ortahisar Kultur Muze
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