Day 08 Saturday, October 15^th  by Karen Dumford dumfordk@aol.com
CAPPADOCIA,AVANOS, SULTAN HAN CARAVANSARAI, KONYA

This morning as we left the hotel, in a traditional Turkish custom, the hotel people poured out water behind us, wishing that our “travel flows as smoothly as water”. (In Mongolia, they pour milk.)  We headed to Avanos, which is Latin meaning “by the water.” Avanos is the earliest settlement in Cappadocia.  Here because the land is so fertile and the rivers leave so much sediment of clay, they are known for their pottery.  Since mountains in the south and the north cut them off from the sea and trade, the people in this area have been slow to change, and their crafts were only for their own local use. But tourism made their crafts flourish again, and they’ve become known for their crafts, especially pottery and weaving.  On our way into Avanos we saw 2 ostriches drinking out of the river.  We also saw trees with pottery hanging on the branches.  Meli told us that those are pieces of pottery that were formed or fired acceptably by the craftspeople. 

We stopped by the pottery shop of Galip and his wife Lillian.  We got to meet and talk with some visiting students from the University in Ankara. We watched Galip make pottery: his skills are amazing, and it was additionally fun for us to watch him jump on the bottom wheel of the pottery wheel to start it spinning.  He made a teapot while we watched, cutting its spout at precisely a 60-degree angle—at anything but that angle it would drip.  He had made the lid of the teapot as the first thing in the process, and when the teapot was finished the lid fit exactly, without any artificial measurement on his part.

He also demonstrated how a special Hittite pitcher is made; Meli asked him to “because she likes us.”

After making a piece it stays in the sun for 20 minutes to dry, and in inclement weather it stays inside for 3 days.  Then it’s fired at 950-1100 degrees centigrade for 10 hours.  To get a natural black color, in the second firing the piece is covered with grape foliage, straw, seeds, to stop oxidation, and the color turns black.  The clay that he uses comes from the Red River and from the mountains.  Galip is the biggest plate maker in Anatolia.  After the first firing, the plate is dipped in molten glass and fired again at 1050 deg. Centigrade.  If the fire is too hot, a cobalt blue color will run. If the plate has been fired at the right temperature, it will ring like a bell.  We asked Meli about lead in the pottery here, and she said that they might contain lead, but they are dipped in molten glass before the second firing, so unless the piece is chipped it’s safe for food.

Galip is a fifth-generation potter.  (Meli’s mother is taking pottery classes from Galip.)  Cappadocia fairy chimneys can be bought just like a house might be.  Galip owns the bottom level of the rock his shop is in, so he’s made more rooms by digging down.  He can’t dig up, because he doesn’t own that level of the rock.  He has been chosen by the Minister of Culture to represent Turkey with his pottery.

We stopped at a linen shop in town to buy the pretty ribbon border that had been on the Museum Hotel tablecloths, and we ended up also buying beautiful soft Turkish towels.

We then drove along and our next stop was a Caravanserai.  Controlling nature included road building and once the people began to grow more produce than they could consume, they made roads for trade.  These roads created a web for Anatolia, and the caravanserai were built for the Silk Road, from Alexandria through Anatolia.  Roads were also used for military purposes.  A caravanserai was built as a safe stop, to attract traders.  Sultans felt if there were safe and comfortable places for traders there would be more trade, so they organized a caravan system.  Typically there was a commander that oversaw both the caravanserai and a 20-40 mile radius around the caravanserai. The stops were quite roomy.  There was a central courtyard and mosque. There were sleeping quarters and meal halls.  It was typically owned by women and included Turkish baths, food storage areas.  One of the most impressive areas was the area for the camels. In the winter people could spend many months there, because the camels couldn’t walk well in snow.  It was a place for exchanges of ideas, stories, values.  Many people told the same stories but with different heroes’ names.  Another of the important rooms in the caravanserai was for accountants; each arch housed one 2-story room which held 15-20 people. The caravanserai that we visited was built during the Crusades, it has an intact dome, and it’s about 800 years old. 

We arrived in Konya for the night