I decided to go to the city of Bursa to be able to visit a couple of UNESCO World Heritage sites in the area. I first went to the village of Cumalikizik which is known to be a well preserved Ottoman village. I somehow managed to get to the village with very little problem considering that this place isn’t a super popular place to go to. I say that it isn’t super popular but that doesn’t mean that no people go here. When I got off the minibus at the main entrance of the village, there was a large number of visitors here which came as a surprise to me. At that point, I thought that the this place has got to be an incredible place since it has that many people here.
On first impression, I thought that Cumalikizik Village seemed rather ordinary. To me, it looked like it is just an underdeveloped village no different from those that I would see in third world countries. To be fair, Türkiye is a very well developed country and to have a village that is still undeveloped since the Ottoman period is a testament to the preservation efforts of the authorities. That being said, the presence of numerous vendors where visitors would first land would be a little off putting. However, if you just make it beyond the entrance, the crowds would thin out considerably. Sometimes leaving just yourself going around that village.
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