Lots of Cloth, But No Tents
No tents made or sold here anymore on the Street of the Tentmakers, but lots of clothing. This is between Beyazıt Square and Istanbul‘s Grand Bazaar—in fact, the buildings are against the Bazaar’s western wall—so it’s part of Istanbul’s huge market district.
It’s a typical market street: crowded, but the traffic moves through.
Turkey raises a lot of cotton, and has lots of wool from its millions of sheep, so it’s a natural for making apparel. The buyers are from Istanbul, the rest of Turkey, and lots of Balkan countries.
Çadırcılar Caddesi (that’s CHAH-duhr-juh-LAHR jah-deh-see) has changed a lot over the years that I’ve been traveling to Turkey. It used to be much quieter, with shops selling plumbing fixtures, household furnishings and even scrap metal.
My friend Aladdin‘s antiques shop was here—you can read all about it in Bright Sun, Strong Tea, the extract entitled “Aladdin’s Lamp Shop.”
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