travel turkey kusadasi turkish carpets
Every tour of Kusadasi or Ephesus will probably end at a Turkish carpet dealers shop.
When we were here in 1978, we saw many carpets that looked the same to me as the ones we saw in 2013.
However, in my memory, the price of the carpets in 1978, although probably representative of the work envolved,
were well beyond any normal travelers budget to consider purchases... 2013 left a whole different impression.
The man who talked to us, who I understood to be the owner, was a very well-educated speaker.
He explained that the government is now subsidising the weavers in order to keep the art alive and vibrant and to make the
products available to a larger audience.
In addition to seeing dozens of beautiful carpets, we were provided with two demonstrations:
one was of a historic "machine" used to unwind silk threads from their cacoons...
the other was for a hand-weaving loom for the carpets...
Although I hate being herded into shops by tour guides, I found both this visit very interresting and informative.
The 2013 visit was much more professional and there was relatively little pressure to buy compared to 1978.
TRAVEL:
1978 -
1984 -
2013 -
unless noted otherwise all images copyright d. holmes chamberlin jr architect llc
Carpets, Kusadasi, Turkey, gateway to Ephesus, 2013
Carpets, Kusadasi, Turkey, gateway to Ephesus, 2013
Salesman unrolling dozens of Turkish carpets, Kusadasi, Turkey, gateway to Ephesus, 2013
A traditional machine for extracting silk fiber from cacoons, Kusadasi, Turkey, gateway to Ephesus, 2013
Demonstration of carpet weaving, Kusadasi, Turkey, gateway to Ephesus, 2013
Carpet dealer, Kusadasi, Turkey, gateway to Ephesus, 2013
copyright d. holmes chamberlin jr architect llc
page last revised april 2015