Guide
Tamzara is a neighbourhood of Şebinkarahisar, on the route where the Black Sea joins central Anatolia, and what draws people to it is its restored houses, its air and a weaving tradition centuries old.
That weaving is the thing to know about. Tamzara cloth has been woven since the eighteenth century and was sent along the caravan roads as far as the Mediterranean, Egypt and Syria. A cooperative was established to produce it under a decree signed by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1937, and in 2019 the cloth was registered with a geographical indication of origin.
It is woven by hand on looms using cotton thread. In the past it went into table cloths, peştamals, headscarves, bath wraps, aprons, handkerchiefs and sheets; today it is made into dresses, shirts, ties, shawls, scarves, table cloths, curtains and textile gifts.
The neighbourhood is green in the middle of a continental climate, and its appearance has begun to change since the historic houses and workplaces were restored. Its name appears often in folk songs. The coffee houses where women and men spend time together, and the ecological market selling what the producers of the neighbourhood grow organically, are part of what people come for.
