The Morphological Characteristics of Anatolian Fortified Towns

In this paper a study is presented of the morphological characteristics of nine Anatolian fortified towns, Antalya, Ankara, Bursa, Erzurum, Diyarbakir, Iznik, Niğde, Trabzon, and Urfa, all of which are located in Anatolia which makes up the greater part of present-day Turkey. This peninsula has always been a centre towards which East and West gravitate and a junction between Europe and the immense Afro-Asian continent. The fortified towns selected as sample areas have distinct urban patterns derived from Roman, Byzantine, Arabic, and Turkish traditions and still reflect the characteristics and segmented labyrinthine urban texture that bear the marks of the Ottoman period. The reason for the selection of the case studies, each of which form a fascinating body of data, is that to date no study has been carried out of these Anatolian fortified towns which have significant individual characteristics in relation to their immensely rich historical and cultural background. Therefore it is believed that they deserve to be made known to a wider audience as examples of the type of city not often discussed in relevant literature. It is also believed that the morphological analyses which they are subjected to in this paper will contribute to the growing body of numerical data on such towns. The aim of the study is to analyze the comparative morphology of these towns in the light of ‘space syntax’, which is a method used to give quantitative descriptions of built space. The basic concepts and methods of space through space syntax have been adapted to the findings of the research study in order to put forward some of the characteristics intrinsic to Anatolian settlements. The numerical interpretation of the terminology, however, is specific to this study. The fortified towns of Anatolia all share the same deep structure despite differences in size, location, and topography. The most integrated lines constitute the core of the towns and these are the streets of the urban system most used by people—those on which most space-dependent facilities such as shops are located—and of the segregated areas which are primarily residential. Because integration is low, weak mean intelligibility values are typical characteristics of these towns. The selected fortified towns reflect the richness and density of their social, economic, and cultural environment. It is hoped therefore that the examination of the typological variety of the urban layouts and the identification of the specific and distinctive characteristics of these towns will contribute considerably to present-day knowledge of urban design.