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Traditional streets are narrow and filled with stones on the surface. Generally there is a sloping downward from both sides to meet in the middle, to keep the rain water away from the walls of the houses. The large eaves of the roofs serve the same purpose. In the traditional streets residents could fill their pitchers or passers by could drink from the street fountains built into one of the walls and sometimes located in a cul-de-sac (blind alley). The old miniatures and pictures show that the houses were painted white, indigo, pale pink, light yellow and green.

Towns range from simple settlements around marketplaces to large population centers offering a variety of goods, services and facilities as well as serving the basic economic and political functions. In general, the towns where the primary function is economic tend to be small, conservative and rural in character. In small towns, where occupational groups are few and weak, relations among residents tend to be more personal, non-institutionalized and informal.

The small-town merchant, trader or artisan identifies himself with the community. Whereas when the political function has joined or overridden the economic function, towns tend to be larger, progressive and urban. However rural a town may appear to the outsider, there is a distinct difference between a town and the surrounding villages.

Settlements are classified according to the number of inhabitants: Less than 2,000 inhabitants is a village (koy), between 2,000 and 20,000 is a town (kasaba) and a population of more than 20,000 is a city (sehir).

Cities – Towns – Villages – The Old Anatolian House – The Street

The coffin is carried to the cemetery by a hearse followed by a long convoy. Graves are rectangular in shape and designed to accommodate only one person. The deceased is buried in only the shroud not the coffin. The body is laid on its right shoulder facing the direction of Mecca. The tombstone is on the head’s side. The Imam’s prayers signify the end of the burial. The deceased is commemorated on the seventh and fifty second days of his death with Islamic readings; mevlit. Sometimes big funerary meals or halvah are offered to the poor and surrounding people.

Throughout the ages in Anatolia, many different rituals regarding death and burial have been applied. Types of graves have differed. Graves under the floors of houses, wooden rooms, tumuli, chamber like graves, rock-tombs, sarcophagi, domed or conical tombs (turbe, kumbet) and mausoleums are some places where the dead have been laid. Although it is difficult, death is considered to be as a natural part or aspect of life. There are many people who prepare themselves for death by putting necessary amount of money for funerals in their bank accounts, keeping winding sheets ready, or buying land in a cemetery in advance.

Dying as martyrs is an honorable thing. In Islam, it is believed that martyrs go directly to heaven. When somebody dies, the corpse is laid on a bed in a separate room, the head facing the direction of Mecca, eyelids closed, the big toes are tied to each other and the two arms rest on both sides next to the body. Burial has to take place as soon as possible during the daytime. If somebody dies in the late afternoon, he is buried the next day. The corpse might rest for a period of time in a cool place or a mortuary but only if there are close relatives coming from a far away place.

According to religious belief, if somebody is buried without an ablution, he is not allowed to enter heaven. Therefore, dead people have to be washed by authorized people, and always women by a woman, men by a man. Meanwhile the death is declared from a mosque minaret by a muezzin with some words from the Koran together with his name, funeral time and place. After the ablution the corpse is dressed in a white shroud, put in a wooden coffin covered with a green piece of cloth. A martyr’s coffin is covered with the Turkish flag. The coffin is carried to the table outside in the courtyard of a mosque on people’s shoulders before prayers.

Nobody stands in front of the funeral procession and people in the street stand up and salute the funeral motionless and in silence. While the coffin rests guarded on the table outside, people perform their regular prayers. From within the mosque, following the prayers, they all come out and line up in front of the coffin to take part in the funeral service under the leadership of the Imam. Women are not allowed to join this service. At the end of the service, the Imam asks people what they thought of the deceased and answers are always positive: “He was good. May God bless him. Mercy be upon his soul, etc.” Funeral services are not held for parricides or the stillborn.