Chez Galip

Overview

Chez Galip is a family pottery in Avanos, the clay town of Cappadocia. The family has made pottery for six generations, and its owner, the ceramic master Galip Körükçü, learned the craft from his father. The ateliers work in rock caves near the Çeç Tumulus, just outside town. Under the shop in town, a cave holds a hair museum that Galip began in 1979.

Quick facts

• Family business: six generations of potters
• Owner: Galip Körükçü, ceramic master, born in Avanos
• Hair museum: since 1979, in the Guinness Book of Records since 1998

A Family at the Wheel

Galip Körükçü was born and grew up in Avanos. He and his three brothers learned the trade from their father, the way the craft has passed from father to son in Avanos. After that, he studied in Nevşehir and Ankara.

That clay comes from the old beds of the Kızılırmak, the Red River, and from the hills around it. Avanos pottery is a registered appellation of origin, so the name belongs to work made in this district.

What to See at Chez Galip

The cave ateliers

The workshop's main ateliers sit in caves cut into the rock near the Çeç Tumulus, on high ground above the town, with a view of Erciyes, the great volcano of the region. One part of the caves is for production, where you watch the potters at work. The other part holds the showrooms, with traditional, old and contemporary work.

The Chez Galip hair museum

The hair museum is a cave under the shop in town. Its walls and ceiling are covered with locks of hair, each pinned beside a slip of paper with an address. More than 16,000 women have left one since 1979. The collection began with a single lock a woman left Galip, and other visitors kept adding theirs. In 1998, it entered the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest collection of hair.

Twice a year, in June and December, names are drawn from the walls, and the winners are invited back to Avanos for Galip's pottery workshops. After restoration, the museum reopened as an official museum on 22 May 2026. For Galip, it also shows that women, too, can make pottery in Cappadocia.

Visiting Chez Galip

The shop with the hair museum is at Yukarı Mahalle (a neighborhood), 110. Sokak No:24, in Avanos. However, the cave ateliers are at the edge of town, near the Çeç Tumulus. The hair museum needs no ticket, and leaving a lock of hair is up to you. Its hours are not published, so ask us to confirm before you plan a visit. For how a session at the wheel works, read our guide to Avanos pottery.

Updated: October 31, 2026.

Our suggestion

Watch the potters in the caves first, then go down to the hair museum. Seen in that order, the collection reads as the family's own story. Across town, the Güray Müze shows Anatolian ceramics from the Bronze Age to the Ottomans, 20 meters under the rock. Galip’s first lock of hair opens our guide to craft workshops in Cappadocia, which follows both stops.

Seeing Chez Galip with Us

Our Avanos pottery tour puts you at the wheel in a family workshop before the valleys of Zelve and Paşabağ. The North Cappadocia tour stops in Avanos for lunch and a master potter. Tell us which you would like to try, the wheel or the painting, and we will find the right atelier.