Facing the courtyard is a porticoed antechamber covered by a roof and partially surrounded by three walls.   In Urfa, the name for this space is mastaba; elsewhere, the more general term is iwan.

There are also various other rooms with various purposes, such as bedrooms, a kitchen (tandir), a sitting room, or a water closet.   There is also a semi-basement called the zerzembe, which is used for winter food storage and is practically omnipresent in traditional Turkish homes in a hot climate. The house as a whole, with its courtyard, mastaba, and other rooms, forms one integrated living space rather than each room being its own “isolated, independent” space.

Together, the courtyard and mastaba form the most important part of the house. Except in very cold weather, most family activities would traditionally take place here.   In particular, the courtyard is where women would traditionally gather to visit with each other during the day, while doing household tasks like lacework, knitting, or sewing, and moving about to whichever part of the courtyard was shaded. The courtyard’s importance is such that in Turkish it is often called hayat — literally, “life”. For privacy, the courtyard is surrounded by high walls to prevent prevent passersby from looking in from the street.

For the same reason, it is not entered directly from the street; instead, the front door leads to the dehliz, or entrance hall, where a second door opens onto the courtyard.   Inside the courtyard, there is often a fountain and small garden. As for the mastaba, it is usually the grandest and most architecturally elaborate part of the house. Because of Urfa’s hot climate, people like to sit here because it is cool (or summer mastaba).

Traditional Urfa courtyard houses are often two-story.   Rooms on the ground floor are called kab, after a regional word meaning “arch vault”. Rooms on the upper floor are called çardak, or “arbor”, and all open onto the gezenek, an open terrace accessed by stairs from the courtyard.  Each room is internally divided into two parts: the entry space, called the gedemeç or papuçluk, and the main room space.

Shoes must be removed in the gedemeç before proceeding to the main area. The main area is typically raised by about 20-30 cm above the gedemeç.

Urfa gets very hot in the summer, and it is often cooler to sleep on the roof than in the house. As a result, the roof is typically crowned by a parapet built high enough to protect the family’s privacy.

The Hacı Hafız house, now used as an art gallery, is a good example of traditional Urfa house architecture from the 1800s. The grand mastaba is in the middle. Below it is the entrance to the zerzembe. An important consideration in domestic architecture is mahremiyat, which could roughly be translated into English as “privacy” or “intimacy” but which carries stronger implications.

This concept is especially important when it comes to relations between men and women – outside the extended family, interaction between men and women is restricted.

As a result, traditional Urfa houses are constructed in ways to prevent men from viewing the women of the household.   For example, doors facing each other, windows facing the street, and significant differences in roof elevation are all avoided.

In wealthier households, the house would be built with separate haremlik and selamlik quarters; poorer and middle-class houses would not have this luxury. The haremlik is where the family lives; the selamlik is a “semi-public” space used to host male guests and shelter animals.

The haremlik is generally larger and “better equipped” than the selamlik, since it is where most everyday family life is conducted. In larger houses, the selamlik may have its own courtyard, smaller than the haremlik’s. The selamlik never has a second story since that would allow male visitors to see into the haremlik courtyard from above.   In some houses there is a second floor above the selamlik, but it belongs to the haremlik and can only be accessed through that part of the house. In larger homes, the selamlik may also have its own separate entrance.

These courtyard houses are often built facing south, as this is the qibla direction here. Their water closets are typically tucked out of the way of the kitchen and oriented so that when they are used, a person’s intimate parts on either the front or back are not facing the qibla.