Caravanserais

Caravans were one of the most important factors that provide the flow of commerce, information and people all around the world same as the huge logistic firms of nowadays. Because of the profit the countries gain from these caravans, they try to attract attention towards their region. Security and accommodation are two most common challenges of the tradesmen. So caravanserais are built in order to provide secure place to stay for tradesmen. The first examples of caravanserais are built by Seljuk Turks. Caravanserais were to protect people from dangers, whereas now we need to protect them from the danger of degeneration. Carrying out our own architectural culture and the exchange of cultures among people from various regions are two of the most significant reasons for us to preserve caravanserais as much as we can.

Initially, stone is one of the most important building materials in the Seljuk’s architecture. Stone masonry plays a key role in transfer of traditional Seljuk architecture among generations especially nowadays, because stone masonry lost its importance and usage completely. Prof.Dr.Richard pointed out that “you can let the Stone sleep, cannot forget it. The only material that is necessary to change the neutrality to extraordinary in architecture. The ability to explain its importance to the people is also a very nice thing from our viewpoint.” The structures which are made of stones express their architectural characteristics in a more effective way because of the detailed work of stone masonry. As it can be seen, the main architectural technique in caravanserais is stone masonry so as we protect the caravanserais stone masonry can be transferred to the next generations.

Secondly, with the help of technological developments the world becomes a very small place and people from all around the world can communicate with each other easily. However, this kind of communication cannot take place of the old traditional way of communication in the times of caravanserais. While people come closer to others with new technologies such as internet and telephones, actually they are separating their selves from real life. Most of the caravanserais are not functionally used by the today’s community. There are some available caravanserais to visit, but not as accommodation or trade center. Mr. Osman Aydın, president of the Chamber of the Architects in Antalya claims that “Hans and caravansaries, which make up one part of cultural inheritance, are being ruined from various reasons, and lose their values and attributes every passing day. We believe that Hans caravansaries, which are protected, should also be used in order to fulfill the necessities of the modern society. Besides, the Hans were serving historical operations and also performing cultural Exchange in the past. But the failure of today tourism buildings, while accommodating people from many countries from worldwide, now can’t perform this cultural exchange, and this is not acceptable. I am thinking that, we should question this fact to. “ Therefore, the caravanserais should be used as its original function.

Consequently, architectural transfer between generations and cultural exchange among people can be provided by protecting and renovation of caravanserais.