Isparta, Mediterranean Region, Türkiye

🇹🇷 Isparta is a city in western Turkey and the capital of Isparta Province. It is known as the "City of Roses". Isparta is well-connected to other parts of Turkey via roads. Antalya lies 130 km to the south and Eskişehir is 350 km to the north.

Süleyman Demirel University has introduced thousands of youths from varied backgrounds to the city's mostly conservative fabric in recent years. The city's football team, Ispartaspor, plays in Group 7 of the Turkish Regional Amateur League.

Economy The main economic activities of Isparta are the production of rose water and handmade carpets. Tourism, both local and increasingly international due to "biblical tourism", is becoming an important source of revenue.

In the early 20th century, carpet making was a major industry in Isparta.

Carpet weaving in Isparta developed towards the end of the 19th century. Isparta (Sparta) in Pisidia was one of the late regions to develop a carpet-weaving tradition. The Greek Orthodox population played a vital role in this development. As they were keen merchants, they linked their carpet production to the activity of the Oriental Carpet Manufacturers, a major company for carpets' production and export from the Ottoman Empire to the European countries and the United States. Pioneers in this process were the Isparta-born and of Greek Orthodox stock carpet-makers such as Prodromos Gregoriades, Iordanis and Damianos Styloglou, Philippos Kahramanoglou, Socrates and Damian Kahramanoglou, Minas Kehagioglou, Theodoris and Ioannis Papazoglou, Athanasios Pesmazoglou, Nikolaos Soutsoglou etc. Carpet weaving in Asia Minor belongs to a long tradition of carpet weaving, intrinsically related to the nomadic life of the turkic tribes which settled this region gradually from the 11th century onwards. As the nomads became sedentary, local styles in flat and pile rugs appeared; therefore we now discern styles according to place-names where these styles were more popular, such as Ushak carpet, Bergama Carpets, Konya carpets etc.