Cumalikizik is just another beautiful Turkish village located in the vicinity of Bursa city. Ottomans conquered Bursa in 1326 by the second ruler of the state. Osman’s son Orhan declared Bursa as the new capital and invited Turkomans to settle around the fertile lands of Bursa. While sultanate monuments like Grand Mosque, Green Mosque, Green Tomb and Hans were erected in the center of Bursa, intricate villages were developing in the countryside. Cumalikizik is just one of these beautiful settlements which were built by the Turkomans shifting from nomadic life to settled life.

There are various villages ending with kizik around Bursa and the first Turkoman settlements in Anatolia. While kizik has a similar meaning to 'red' in red iron, it also means hot water source in the Turkish language. Most importantly, kizik name given to the villages is mainly because of the kizik name coming from a sub-tribe of one of the biggest Turkish tribes; The Oghuz Turks. While many historians name 22 sub-tribes out of Oghuz Turks, scholars like Rashid al-Din Hamadani and Abual-Ghazi Bahadur add three more tribes such as Kizik, Karkin and Yaparli. The most common putative information about the origin of kizik addition to the villages around Bursa is geography. The region is mountainous and Uludag Volcano is the peak of the region. Scarce plains limited the villages so these narrow settlements were called kizik by the public. While the kizik with the Turkish bath was called Hamamlikizik, the one where the Muslims practiced their important Friday prayer was called Cumalikizik. Hamam stands for Turkish bath and Cuma prayer is similar to the Sunday service of the Christian world.

Where is Cumalikizik?

Cumalikizik is located in the Yildirim district of Bursa city. It takes less than 20 minutes to get to Cumalikizik from Bursa city center with a cab. If you are exploring Bursa on foot, you can take the subway and get off at Cumalikizik stop and walk around 30 minutes to get to the village or take a 5-minute taxi drive. When in Cumalikizik, you can wander in the narrow cobbled stone streets of the village and visit impressive houses built in Ottoman times. There are 270 Turkish houses in Cumalikizik village. Locals still use 180 of those houses. Some of them are local businesses like cafes and restaurants. You can find beautiful village-grown local produce in the town market of Cumalikizik village and purchase nice handmade gifts for your loved ones. Cumalikizik is listed in Unesco since 2013 November along with Bursa under the title; Bursa and Cumalıkızık: the Birth of the Ottoman Empire.

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