It was September 1, when our tour group left Pamukkale for Fethiye. Close to Fethiye, we stopped at a Carpet Co-operative store. This co-operative functions as an outlet for selling carpets from many local weavers. They also employee weavers who work on-site to make carpets and kilims. Here we were shown how carpets are made and saw carpet weavers in action. We were also shown how to identify real carpets from fakes and from machine made carpets. In the following image, this lady was spinning wool in the traditional manner, by hand.
Weaver, Spinning Wool
The following image shows traditional tools and a spinning wheel used for spinning wool.
Traditional Wool Spinning Tools
Turkish carpets are distinguished by having a double knot in the weave. This image shows a weaver making a carpet by hand.
Turkish Carpet Weaving
Silk carpets are also crafted on the premises. We were given a demonstration of spinning silk threads from silk filaments that were unwound from cocoons. In this image, I captured a lady weaving a silk carpet. Silk is much thinner than wool. As a result a silk carpet may take 5 or 6 times longer to weave that a wool carpet.
Silk Carpet Weaver
The demonstrations were followed by a sales pitch, in traditional Turkish manner. We were offered a variety of teas and other beverages while sales staff showed different carpet designs, both wool and silk. Several members of our tour group, purchased carpets that include shipping to their homes.
Leaving, the co-operative, we stopped at the abandoned Greek village of Kayaköy. This village originally had a few thousand Greek villagers. During the Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.
Abandoned Village, Kayakoy, Turkey
The following two images show some of the abandoned buildings in the village.
Abandoned Buildings, Kayakoy, No 1
More information about the village of Kayaköy and the Population Exchange can be found on Wikipedia.
Abandoned Buildings, Kayakoy, No 2
We left for our hotel in Fethiye. Our tour group went out to dinner in downtown Fethiye. Walking to the fish market, we passed this umbrella alley.
Umbrella Alley, Fethiye
We had dinner at the fish market. Here, we chose the fish from one of the vendors. The fish is cooked at one of the kitchens and served at tables in the courtyard. There were a variety of fish that were offered, as shown below.
Fish Market, Fethiye
These two guys were taking our order for the kitchen.
Taking Our Order For The Kitchen, Fethiye
In the following image, Yessir, one of our tour group members, was busy choosing fish for his dinner.
Yessir, Choosing Fish
Angela and I both chose snapper for our dinner. These were delicious.