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Rang

The saffron town

Safranbolu

An Ottoman town named after saffron, with white timber-framed houses under red tiled roofs.

Traditional houses of Safranbolu , Karabük, Turkey
Photo: Uğur Başak, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Safranbolu is saffron yellow

Safranbolu lies in the hills of northern Turkey, inland from the Black Sea. It was a stop on the caravan route between east and west, and its name comes from saffron, which was grown and traded here. A small amount is still grown in nearby villages and harvested each autumn. The town itself is known for its Ottoman houses, built mostly in the 18th and 19th centuries. They have stone ground floors, white-plastered upper floors that overhang the street, dark timber frames and many windows. Roofs are red tile. Seen from the hills, the old quarter is a pattern of white, brown and red. It has been a World Heritage Site since 1994.

Saffron yellow#F4C430House white#F3F0E8Timber brown#5B4033Roof tile red#B5583ACrocus purple#8B6BB5

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Safranbolu

SaffronA yellow-orange shade named after the colour of saffron crocus threads
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Safranbolu" on Wikipedia. If you know Safranbolu and we have it wrong, tell us.

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Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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