Finding Ali Baba's Treasure

A 4,000-year-old Craft In Cappadocia Preserves The Legacy Of An Ancient Empire.

- Malavika Bhattacharya

In Avanos’ town centre stands a clay sculpture of a craftsman at a potter’s wheel—a hat tip to the earthenware crafts that define the region’s past and present. Avanos is a tiny town of around 12,000 people in the Turkish region of Cappadocia. A majority of its inhabitants are engaged in the art of pottery. The abundance of ceramic stores I see—facades adorned with lush glazed plates—are testament to this fact.

Today, ceramics are a major industry in these parts, but clay pottery dates back thousands of years and is part of Cappadocia’s ancient heritage. What began as an age-old household enterprise to create essential earthenware has produced generations of craftsmen, skilled in the art of traditional pottery.

“Every family used to have a pottery workshop attached to their home,” says Ali Gençtürk, a third-generation master potter at his family-owned Kapadokya Seramik. I visited the pottery workshop and store, one among a clutch of family-run ceramic establishments, in June 2018.

“All the sons would learn how to make pots using the kick-wheel. If a man did not know pottery, he could not find a wife,” Ali continues.

Just a few kilometres away from the store flows the Red River, or Kizihrmak—Avanos’ lifeline and the prime source of the unique red clay used in the region’s pottery.