Muğla evleri

The story

The old quarter of Muğla climbs the slopes around Saburhane Square, where about four hundred registered houses from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries stand, many of them restored. They are mostly two storeys high, with a small courtyard and an open front porch called the hayat, and although they sit on a hillside no house blocks another's view.

Each courtyard is entered through a kuzulu kapı, a wide two-leaf gate with a smaller door, the kuzu or lamb, cut into one leaf. The big gate let in carts and pack animals, while people used the low small door, stooping as they entered. Many carry a little tiled roof on top. Chimneys capped with tiles are the symbol of the houses and appear on the city's coat of arms.

Saburhane was declared an urban conservation area, so its streets, walls and gates are protected along with the houses.