Cumalikizik

Cumalikizik, on the lower slopes of Uladag Mountain, is a 700 year old Ottoman Village.  It is said the Sultan Orhan Gazi had 7 villages built for his 7 sons.  Each son wanted a "kizik" or regional villager as a bride, with black goats and a village as a dowry.  So the 7 villages were built, but only 5 still exist and Cumalikizik is the only one that has remained unchanged.  It somehow managed to protect itself during the Independence War and prosper.  The belief is the village got it's name because "cuma" (pronunced juma as a "c" in Turkish makes a "j" sound - very hard to remember) means 'Friday' and Friday was the day of prayer.  This village was the only one with a Mosque and all the other villagers gathered here for Friday Prayers.

Until recent years, the livelihood depended on Chestnut trees that surrounded the village (honey, sweets, roasted nuts), but most of  the trees have been destroyed by disease. (which is why we learned the Chestnut honey was 80TL/qt)  Of the 350 original houses in the village, 180 are used.  The village is now a protected National Monument and is being funded for restoration, which will be ongoing.

The streets are cobblestone, some narrow enough for 1 car or tractor to pass, others barely wide enough for one person to walk.  The only traffic through the town is the villagers themselves.  All visitors park in a car park just inside the village or on the streets before the village.  The houses are built of timber frames, the ground level constructed of dry stacked "rubble" or stones, or stone with mud grout, with no windows, for privacy.  The upper two stories are "plastered" over the wood with a  mixture of mud (or mud and dung mix), straw and water, then painted yellow, white, blue or purple.  The wooden lath is generally unpainted.  The roof is made from up to 4 layers of  tile, overlapping in such a way to withstand the winds from the mountain.  However we noticed that  a lot of the houses had extra rocks on the roof tiles to hold them in place.


The double wooden street doors, generally made of walnut wood, with wrought iron hinges, knobs and handles, open into a "hayat" or life area.  They have beaten earth or slate slab floor.  Most have a garden adjoining the hayat which provides them with fresh fruits and veges.  This ground floor is used as storage for food items, fire wood, agricultural equipment (reason for double doors), and a stable for livestock (generally sheep, goats, milk cow, chickens).  There is also an inner area for cooking (fire oven, open fire cauldron) and the laundry (washing and line drying).   


The first floor (in US the "ground" floor is usually the 1st floor, next the 2nd and so forth; in other countries, "ground" equals first, and first equals second and so on) is the "winter place" because it is easiest to keep warm.  It has a lower ceiling and consists of living areas, bedrooms, bathroom, and heater.  The second floor is the "summer place" as it is airier and cooler in summer.  It contains bedrooms and a large living area which generally faces the street.  The windows are made to open inwards like a double door, and are often covered with wooden lattice on the exterior to stop outsiders viewing inside, although insiders can view outside.  The upper two levels jut out over the ground level.


The Mosque, which is the village center, is  300+ years old, the first one having burnt.


Many of the houses are open for trade.   We visited with a gentleman, who spoke excellent English, and was the owner of a "Konukevi", Guest House or B & B.  We will definitely be back there for a meal one day, because whatever was cooking/baking sure did smell good.  Besides, how cool would it be to actually stay there.  They are open at 7am for breakfast and until after dinner hours, daily.  There was a bee keeper, but he was closed for the holiday (Monday was a National holiday celebrating their victory over Greece in the Independence War), I guess, and a Trinket Man just setting up his wares as we were finishing up.  The village has a small "general store" and the local village women have stalls in the entrance courtyard.  It was fairly slow on Monday when we were there, maybe due to the holiday, or maybe always on Mondays. We understand the weekends are quite busy there.  The women had selections of their homemade preserves, some fresh raspberries, which they are known for, homemade pastas, and "koy ekmek" or village bread.  We did leave with a very warm, round loaf of this village bread and Geoff could hardly wait to get to the car to slather a piece with butter.  Lucky we had some in the picnic basket.  He only waited that long out of respect for those observing Ramazan.  And it was very good.


We will be returning to Cumalikizik, as there is more to discover and photograph, and the locals were all so warm and welcoming.  Maybe we can capture more of them next time.  We hope you will enjoy this pictorial tour of this ancient village.

 

You can get some idea of the road/path sizes.  Clearly the widest area was the entrance courtyard where they women set up their stalls.

Here we have tried to capture the different forms of construction from the dry stack, to the rock and mud mortar, to the "plaster" over wood, with the wood lath, and the tile roof, complete with rock weights.

Three examples of the "double winged doors" as they say, various ages, the one Geoff is in front of is clearly newer.

  

Different views and stages of repair/disrepair of the Ottoman houses.  You can see all the elements of contruction, floor levels, doors, rooms jutting out and paint colors.  Apparently green is a new color, or they mixed some colors.  And these have withstood time, weather, earthquakes and war. 

Out and About the Village

A peek inside one of the ground floors.  I felt a little like a spy.

A peek into one of the courtyard gardens, corn, beans, tomatoes, fruit trees.

The minaret and the eaves/arches of the overhang of the Mosque.  The mosque itself was not that appealing, and, there were a lot of men sitting outside the tea house in the courtyard of the  mosque, so it was hard to get a decent shot.

Street Dogs

The village "cesme" or water source, and a grapevine covered outdoor restaurant.

New windows and satellite dish both look out of place

The "general" store

Two of the village women.  They tend to wear these cheap, plastic slide on shoes everywhere, from these uneven roads to working in the fields.  We actually bought our village bread from the lady with her back to us.

Figs trees were sprouting up everywhere, and then there were the figs.  Each stall had the same products for sale, surely from their own gardens and ovens, so how to choose which one to buy from.

We think these are wild hibiscus.  Whatever they are, they were beautiful and growing in the tiniest cracks.

The village bread, after it had been cut, buttered and that piece devoured.

View across the valley to Bursa from just outside the village.  You can just see the range of mountains on the other side of Bursa.  Which is why we always have humidity haze, we are trapped in the valley surrounded by mountains and a sea.

We traveled the short distance to one of the other 7 villages, Hamamlikizik, and while it had interesting houses, it was not as well preserved.  The only interesting thing here was this spring/stream flowing through town.  We are guessing since a "hamam" is a bath house, that this village was where everyone came for the weekly bath, and that this spring must feed the bath houses, which we did not see.