Cappadocia's silk carpets enchant visitors with colors, patterns

Cappadocia might be famous for its fairy chimneys, underground settlements and wild horses, but the handwoven silk carpets made by the locals here have become a new favorite for the visitors. Carpet weavers tie 1,200 knots in a square centimeter and create the best patterns, reflecting the history and the culture of Cappadocia. The silk threads are dyed with natural paint and the carpets are weaved in traditional carper weaving stalls. Tourists visiting the traditional carpet-weaving factory see how threads are made from silkworms and watch weavers create some of the best carpets in the world.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Sefa Yıldırım, the general managers of a carpet factory said 300,000 tourists visit their site every year. "The carpets intrigue Far Eastern, South American and European tourists the most," he said. Yıldırım added that apart from the carpet weavers working at the factory, there are also other weavers working as freelancers from their homes.

"6,000 carpet weavers are working for us around Turkey. These people are called 'golden fingers' since their craft cannot be done by untrained fingers," said Yıldırım. The silk carpets of Cappadocia are can be as big as a small painting or as huge as a room. After designers come up with patterns, the weavers start working on the project. A single carpet of an average size takes up to six months to make. The price tags for the carpets varies between TL 100 and TL 1,000.