COMLEKCI VILLAGE

Comlekci, pronounced chom-lek-chee, is a very rural mountainside village with a population of around 900. Despite being just 12Kms from Bodrum International Airport and 25Kms from the famous holiday resort of Bodrum, the village is still untouched by tourism. Most of the villagers work the surrounding fields from their simple dwelling houses that are also home to free roaming chickens, goats, sheep and cows. The name Comlekci actually derives from the days when it was famous for making pottery, however this has now completely died out leaving carpet making as the main village craft.

The daily routine of most villagers from sun-up to sun-down is to tend their livestock, their fields and olive trees, make yogurt, pasteurize their milk (usually on an open wood fire), walk the livestock to the fields, prepare meals and visit each other for the latest gossip. In between all this, those homes that have a loom will spend a little time each day making a carpet. Although it is possible to buy the wool ready spun and dyed, most villagers prefer to use the wool from their own sheep and produce their own dyes from local natural materials.

Carpet making in Turkish villages is a sideline rather that the main business, often supplementing an otherwise basic income. The designs and colors are unique to each village and sometimes to a particular family. Even the way a carpets fringe is finished can denote if the maker was married, single or engaged.

Comlekci Village

Visitors to our shop in Bodrum have the opportunity to visit our village and to see not only where the carpets are made but to see a side of Turkey normally missed by most tourists.

Milas (ancient Mylasa) is an inland town 15Kms to the north of the village that gives its name to the carpets produced in the region. Milas town has its own historical heritage being the place where King Mausolos, builder of the famous Mausoleum in Bodrum, was born and lived. Its weekly market is now a Mecca for busloads of tourists from the coastal resorts who descend on the town every Tuesday throughout the summer season.

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