Every carpet tells a story, according to Seyfullah Turkkan, general manager of the Motif Gallery in Istanbul's covered bazaar.
And as every visitor to the bazaar soon discovers, every carpet seller tells a story as well.
The bazaar, a treasure trove of brilliant brassware, beads and bags, glittering gold and pointy-toed turkish slippers in silken rainbow hues, is also home to spruikers with lines as well polished as the gems they're trying to sell.
"I have bags, carpet bags," says one, on a variation of the "come and see my carpets" line.
"You want a kilim?" says another, hoping to make a killing on kilims.
"We don't cheat as much as others," jests another. "Just a lot."
The banter's lively and offers to share some Turkish tea are never in short supply around the tourist precincts of Istanbul.
Those who have the time to spend say the price of carpets is inversely proportional to the time taken to partake of apple tea.
But Turkish hospitality is also genuine, and for Turkkan, a former journalist who has lived in eastern Europe and New York, carpets are a joy and passion, not simply a job.
He speaks of carpets as a connoisseur speaks of fine wine. Just as the soil, sun and other factors shape the flavour of a wine, the combination of weaver, wool, dye, age and beauty of each carpet makes it unique, he says.
"Maybe one village is weaving the same carpets for centuries, and this is their identity.
"From one carpet you recognise from which area it comes," he says.
"The weaving is language, the weaving is drawing. These people don't have to draw like (for) fine art, but to the weaver, this is their way of writing, and even their colours have meaning, (the) design has a meaning."
He says although carpet weavers are mostly women, carpet collectors are mostly men. "This is a female art but the collectors are mostly men. Because the ladies, they like jewellery, but who makes the jewellery? It's mostly men. Who likes the carpets? It's mostly men."
It's not just carpets that speak of history in Istanbul.
The city is rich in cultural relics, including Topkapi Palace, home to the Ottoman sultans from the 15th to 19th centuries, the famed Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, the European-style Dolmabahce Palace, remnants of Roman aqueducts and a cavernous, dripping underground cistern dating from Byzantium times.
Turkey plans to work more with neighbouring countries to develop tourism through efforts such as the World Tourism Organisation's (WTO) Silk Road project, according to Turkish Tourism Minister Ibrahim Gurdal.
"Turkey is now preparing to host a great number of guests at many holy sites of religious importance on the occasion of the 2000th birthday of Jesus Christ," he said at the recent WTO general assembly in Istanbul.
"Tourism eliminates all borders," he said.
"This ... works to open up humanity's common cultural heritage which lies scattered across different political borders to common use for both the development of tourism and the creation of a peaceful and tolerant environment."