A wide variety of types of carpets are produced in Turkey with widely varying degrees of quality. For the discerning buyer or collector there are twelve recognized types of carpets, each type produced in different geographical districts and each having distinctive designs, colours and quality. They are easily noted once one learns to "read" or recognize the patterns or designs and colours associated with the geographical area in which produced. The finest contemporary and highest quality of silk and wool carpets currently made in Turkey are produced in a town near Istanbul, called Hereke. The Hereke carpets are either woven in pure silk or cotton and wool. The pure silk carpets uses silk from Bursa. In wool and cotton carpets the warps and wefts are cotton and the best quality of wool is used for knots in the pile. The silk Hereke carpet has from 1.0 to 1.2 million knots per square meter. The knot density in the highest quality wool carpets is any where between 360.000 to 400.000 knots per square meter. In second quality wool carpets the knots are around 250.000 to 300.000 per square meter. The dominant colours in Hereke carpets are dark blue, cream and cinnamon and occasionally yellow and green are used. The traditional floral designs are common and each design has its own name, such as: Seljuk Star, Seven Mountain Flowers Polonaise, One Thousand and One Flower, and Tulip. The flowers in the design and the harmony of colours add warmth to a home.

Please choose the HERKE carpet:

 

     Ladik is a town located north of Konya in the heart of Anatolia. The main sources of income in this area are animal husbandry, agriculture and carpet production. Konya and Ladik are the oldest carpet making centres in Turkey. Even during the 15th century the art of carpet weaving flourished in Konya because it was the capital of the Seljuk empire and a very important communication and political centre. There are many notable artworks in Konya and perhaps the most famous is the Green Mosque.

From Arabia, Iran and other countries many artists came to Konya to practice their crafts. The surviving carpets of this era offer ample evidence of the Turkish weaving skills spread from Konya to other parts of Anatolia.

The colours in Ladik carpets are very vivid and well matched. After Kula carpets, Ladik carpets, with their 250.000 knots per square meter, are considered just as fine.

Please choose the LADIK carpet:

        Kula is the name of a town in Western Anatolia where these wool carpets are made. The village carpets of Kula are woven on a woollen warp and weft and for the most part have strong geometric designs. The colours are rich but soft with earth tones of rust, green, gold and blue being common, however, the dominant colours are pastel. The most important characteristics of these carpets are that they are woven with 100% wool yarn and have varying patterns, colours and sizes. Kula carpets contain 160.000 knots per square meter. Along with all Kula patterns various Anatolian patterns are frequently seen in Kula carpet. Kula carpets resemble those of other Western Anatolian products like, Uşak and Gördes, with their wide borders and restrained colours., They also tend to have a short and somewhat lusty pile. Borders usually consist of a number of stripes of about equal width decorated with little stars and flowers. The earliest patterns of Kula carpets were either geometrical or composed of highly stylised nomadic forms. In the last century Kula carpets often had richer and more imaginative floral designs. At the end of the 19th century they were exported to Europe by the thousands, often carpets. The typical features were a light grey or cream background with floral patterns in pink and blue. Kula carpets, which have furnished many homes, are very elegant. They were particularly favoured for the dining room and libraries.

Please choose the KULA carpet:

         The town of Kayseri, situated in central Turkey, has been famous as a carpet-making centre for centuries. Carpets and kilims of Kayseri are of various types. Silk carpets, artificial silk and wool (floss), natural wool (no dyes), and Bünyan carpets are the major categories produced. Kayseri carpets are woven both at the workshops and in the homes. Weavers usually buy yarn from shops and after finishing their carpet would sell it to the same shop in order to buy more yarn. The Kayseri floss carpets with silk looking yarns in bright colours, have found favour with Europeans with their attractive designs. They look very many like silk carpets to foreigners. The sizes, designs and number of knots are the same as Bünyan carpets, but the large sizes are rather rare. In the floss carpets chemical dyes are used, because the yarn (floss) can only be dyed with chemicals. Cotton is used as warp and weft and floss is used for the knots. These carpets are considered the masterpieces of Kayseri and as such are sought out by dealers to sell to the foreign trade. Sometimes Kayseri carpets are woven entirely in silk and will have 600.000 to 700.000 knots per square meter.

Bünyan carpets are often in floral designs of a typical Oriental carpet. The yarn is cotton and wool dyed with vegetable dyes, and about 120.000 to 150.000 knots per square meter.

The Kayseri Bünyan carpets are made in different sizes; from pillow sizes of 62 by 100 centimetres to the large sixteen-meter square carpet.

Kayseri natural-wool carpets have all the properties of Bünyan carpets except there are not as many colours used as in the Bünyan carpets. Colours of white, cream, light and dark brown and sometimes black are used in these types of carpets with the same number of knots as in the Bünyan carpets.

Please choose the KAYSERİ carpet:

      These carpets are made by Yörük's, semi - nomadic tribes who live near the ocean on the warm plains during the winter months. The villages around Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, are the main producing centres of this type of carpets, which are made with wool and dyes produced by the nomads themselves. The predominant colours are always bright red and dark blue, with a smaller amount of white. Distinctive patterns in the borders "hands on hips" motif, an age-old symbol denoting female fertility, which dates back to the time, when the tribes worshipped mother goddesses.

The field is usually taken up by a large red double mihrab, edged in ram's horn motif. Often the shape of the double mihrab is cut into by two triangles on either side. Ears of grain representing fertility and carnations are frequently seen. If there is a tree of life, it is generally made up of carnations, "the flowers of the people". Sometimes one can see a strange motif, a stylised representation of the human figure, which is used to guard against evil. The numbers of knots in these carpets are equal to 160.000 knots per square meter.

Please choose the DOŞEMEALTI-ANTALYA carpet:

     Taşpınar is a small hamlet in the carpet weaving areas of Niğde. Niğde is one of the main roads that cross the Taurus Mountains. Taşpınar produces excellent carpets of a thick pile, knotted in high quality wool. They have a predominantly blue and red field enlivened by delicate motifs in lighter shades. The yarn is dyed with natural vegetable dyes by the Caucasian methods.

Taşpınar carpets are among the most beautiful of all Anatolian carpets. In the old Taşpınar's carpets the Persian influence geometric designs used simultaneously. However, the rich colours and beautifully prevent this unusual mixture from displeasing the eye. Well cared - for, old Taspinars have a wonderful silk like quality. As the lanolin in the wool rises to the surface it gives the pile a soft rich velvety sheen. New Taspınars are made in the same rich colours as old ones, but the designs are becoming more varied. Caucasian and nomadic patterns have become more regular in recent years. The knots, density of Taspinar carpets are 140.000 per square meter.

Please choose the TAŞPINAR RUGS carpet:

    These carpets, made in the vicinity of Kayseri are of a very fine quality and are considered very attractive. A rich red with indigo-coloured blue is used throughout the field with a border of brilliant shades of yellow and gold. These carpets are very popular, because of the traditional flawless workmanship of the Yahyalı weavers. The main ornamental motif of a contemporary and antique Yahyalı is the hexagon that is similar to those of the Yörük carpets, but they are more linear in execution. A double hexagon encloses a light blue centrepiece. The hexagon may be single, double or triple.

Most Yahyalı carpets have these common characteristics. A main border with stylised flowers and an " old gold" ground, surrounded by two lesser borders with a dark blue ground. The main field is nearly always red, with a blue medallion and corner pieces, which have stepped edges. The warm colour harmony and beautiful designs along with good quality make the Yahyalı carpets one of the most popular of Anatolian carpets. The numbers of knots in Yahyali carpets are equal to the number of Milas carpets (140.000 knots per square meter).

Please choose the  YAHYALI RUGS carpet:

 

    Yağcıbedir carpets are produced in the mountainous areas of the Aegean regions, in the nomad inhabited villages of Mazilar, İslamlar, Karakeçili, Yeniköy, Karaoba and Kocaoba (the oba ending means "nomad tent"). According to the legend Yağcıbekir was a butter seller from Kayseri who made excellent quality carpets to supplement his income. He shared his skills with the people of the villages he visited, so when they started to produce, they named their carpets after him.

The warp, weft and knots are made of pure lambs wool, and the pile is clipped short to allow the pattern to be clearly seen. The dominant colours are dark indigo blue and rich madder red, sometimes with the inclusion of cream, brown, softer shades of red and pinks. As the carpets age they become more and more lovely, as the dark reds fade to a beautiful soft red-brown. The colours and patterns of Yağcıbedir carpets have remained the same for countless generations. They are very distinctive and easy to recognize. The dark blue ground is patterned with geometric forms; stars, flowers, stylised birds and numerous stars of Süleyman. A border of five or seven bands frames the field. The double-ended prayer niche, which indicates that the weavers were Shi-ite Moslems, is very distinctive with an edge of three stepped lines, ending in a ram's horn motif. These carpets are often the favourites of male carpet lovers, due to the masculine colours and simple geometric designs. The knots density in these carets is 160.000 per square meter.

Please choose the  YAĞCIBEDIR RUGS carpet:

   Semi-nomadic shepherds who live in the highland regions of the Caucasus Mountains weave Kozak carpets and their environment is reflected in their products. The distinctive designs in Kozak Carpets can be easily recognized. The warp and weft threads are wool with the weft threads always in red or brown colours. The wool pile in these carpets is fairly deep and the yarn used is always of excellent quality. The Kozak carpet has approximately 50 to 100 Turkish knots per square inch. The motifs used in these carpets are; formal, geometric, central medallion, repeated pattern and "Eagle". True Kozak carpets are mostly antique pieces and were produced in the Caucasus Mountains. Currently a limited number of Kozak carpets are produced and are much prized by dealers.

Please choose the KOZAK RUGS carpet:

   Milas is the centre of a weaving area in Western Turkey near izmir. It gives its name to all the carpets produced in the region. Those made in the immediate area of Milas are different in style to those made in the South-west Peninsula, around the centre of Karaova.

There are four sub-types which constitute the Milas family; the prayer carpet with the lozenge shaped niche, the bright red medallion Milas, the antique Milas which is woven in shades of red-brown and yellow and the Ada Milas which is quite restrained in design.

The prayer rugs are the most important sub-type, with their unusual shaped Mihrab, elongated, terminating in a lozenge, representing the immortality of the soul. Carpets from no other region have Mihrabs in this shape. There are approximately 160.000 knots per square meter in the Milas carpets.

Please choose the MİLAS RUGS carpet:

 

     Kars located near the Russian border in Turkey, produces carpets designed in the Caucasian style. The main motif used is the large cruciform. The quiet olive-green combined with a dull red-brown and lighter beige tones give the piece an enormous warmth. The eight stylised trees of life in the corners are surrounded by a Caucasian calyx-and-leaf border and the guard stripes are called "running dogs" The extremely valuable hand-spun mountain wool is used in the hand weaving and is especially prized by acknowledged buyers. Natural dyed wool is used with the dominant colours navy blue, red and cream. There are 200.000 knots per square .

Please choose the KARS RUGS carpet: