1st Istanbul International Geography Congress Proceedings Book
Caravanserai as a cultural value
Arzu Ersöz TüğenValues created during the historical and social development process are called culture. In the different disciplines within the social sciences, there has been no unity in culture. According to Durkheim, one of the important names in the science of sociology, culture is a whole that societies create in their own dynamics (Alver, 2010). According to Archaeologist Smith, culture is characterized as the learning process of societies (Çağırkan,2017:149). According to geographers, culture is the values that man produces with him against nature (Tanrıkulu,2015: 473). Cultural heritage in cultural geography is the sources that have universal values that people transfer from past to present (Diker ve Deniz,2017: 10). The roads and routes within theseheritage and the caravanserais on these roads are among the important actors of the cultural heritage. Throughout history, the concept of location and road were evaluated together. Roads were used as a means to link geographical, cultural and economic values (Bakırcı, 2014: 63). Caravanserais, in the regions where people from different cultures come together, culturally influenced by each other and affected each other to create environments (Alkan, 2016: 145). Nevertheless, it is inevitable that spaces have an impact on human behavior. Different socio-cultural characteristics of people affect their perception of space (Başkaya, Dinç and Karakaşlı, et al., 2003: 81). The places where caravanserais were built were geographically accessible areas. The areas on which they were built grew rapidly, economically, commercially and culturally, and turned into a gate of gain for the nearby settlements.
