A Study in Terms of Cultural Geography: Traditional Talas Houses

Abstract

Anatolia is a region dominated by Turkish Islamic Civilization for nearly one thousand years. During this long period, the region has had a rich civilization growing under the rules of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey especially Anatolian Seljuk Empire. Talas is one of the settlements of Kayseri which has one of the richest cultural heritages in Central Anatolia. Although Talas has a long history dating back to First Age civilizations, it has developed and been enriched after being settled by Turks. In this rich cultural area, Muslim Turks, Orthodox Armenians, and Americans who were conducting Christian missionary activities have lived together in a cultural structure where tolerance of each other especially emerged since the period of Ottoman Empire. Residential culture is one of the most visible cultural characteristics of society, and this study has evaluated Talas with this in mind. Traditional Talas house’s research has been done from the point of cultural geography. Some suggestions were made on how to protect those houses, for example, to use them for tourism.