Gerede

Gerede lies in the northern Anatolian uplands east of Bolu, on a road connecting the Ottoman capital with the interior. Caravans stopped here as they crossed the mountain country toward Ankara, Sinop and the east. The town was also known for leatherworking, a craft supplied by the hides of animals raised in the surrounding district.

Local tradition associates a bath and bridge with Sultan Bayezid I. In the seventeenth century travellers found inns along the road, and Evliya Çelebi described Gerede as a district town of the Bolu sancak. The road and its caravanserais brought merchants and travellers into contact with the town's tanners and other craftsmen, giving Gerede a place in the exchange between the coast and the Anatolian plateau.