Buldan

Buldan sits in the hills above the Meander valley and has been a weaving town since at least the Ottoman period, supplying cloth to the palace by some accounts. What it makes is a light, loosely woven cotton and silk-blend fabric - buldan bezi - used for shirts, scarves, tablecloths and the peştemal towels that go to hammams, produced partly on power looms now but still on handlooms in family workshops in the back streets, where the clatter carries into the lane. Shops along the main street sell direct and prices are considerably below what the same cloth costs on the coast. The old town above has several hundred registered Ottoman timber houses on steep cobbled lanes, some restored, and there are hot springs in the valley below and the ruins of ancient Tripolis on the Meander nearby. Buldan is a working town rather than a restored one, and it is quiet on any day that is not market day.

What you actually see

• The handlooms - weavers working in back-street workshops.
• The cloth shops - buldan bezi sold along the main street.
• The Ottoman houses - timber homes on the steep old lanes.
• The valley view - the Meander plain from the hillside.

When to go

April to June and September to November. Weekday working hours to find the workshops in operation; most close on Sundays.

Honest expectations

Workshops are private premises - ask before entering or photographing, and expect that a demonstration leads to a sale. Much of what is sold is now power-loomed; ask which is which.

Nearby

Pamukkale and Hierapolis are about an hour south; Denizli is the transport hub.