"hobbit Village" Under Construction In Eastern Turkey

- A municipality in eastern Turkey has started to build a village inspired by the Hobbit houses in "The Lord Of The Rings" series created by J.R.R. Tolkien.

As in the series, houses in Paşabahçe Picnic Area in the Sivas province have been constructed into hillsides.

Although the village is still under construction, Sivas Municipality decided to build more Hobbit houses after they attracted a great deal of attention.

Only two houses have been completed so far, Mayor Sami Aydın said, adding that the village will ultimately have up to 100 houses.

Each house has a bedroom, a living room, bathroom, toilet and kitchen on 65 square meters, overlooking the forest in the valley.

"We planned the project as an apart-hotel. People will be able to book a house for 10 days. I'm baffled at the demand. I was expecting some attention but not this much" Aydın added.

Deputy Mayor Muaz Uzun said that the idea belonged to his son, who is a civil engineer. "When he made the suggestion, I checked it. And I saw that Hobbit houses were exactly what our mayor wanted to build" he said.

"In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a Hobbit-hole, and that means comfort" wrote J.R.R Tolkien in The Hobbit.

Before Sivas, several architects and designers around the world had built Hobbit-influenced houses.

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