Agricultural Terraces and Its Characteristics in the Context of Cultural Heritage: An Evaluation on the Case of Uzundere (Erzurum)

One of the most important stages in the struggle for human life is the start of agricultural activities. Along with agricultural activities, human beings have laid the foundations of agricultural landscape by interacting with nature. Agricultural landscape generally consists of agricultural structures in nature and landscapes formed by agricultural activities and products. One of the important parts of the agricultural landscape is the agricultural terrace gardens. Agricultural terraces are traditional systems that make it suitable for agricultural activities by changing the slope of the land on sloping lands. Terraces, which have been the basic elements of land use and food production for thousands of years, allow agricultural activities even on steep slopes and provide maximum benefit from irrigation and rain water by reducing surface flows. Erosion is also prevented by decreasing the surface flow rate. In addition, the materials used in the construction of the terraces and the composition of the plants grown in them with the rural landscape offer very beautiful views aesthetically. While the concrete part of these landscapes consists of stone walls, irrigation arcs, terrace surface, parcels reserved for vegetable and fruit cultivation and viticulture; the intangible part consists of the architectural construction techniques handed down from generation to generation and the contributions it provides to other cultural elements. This study was carried out in Uzundere district of Erzurum province in Turkey. The aim of the study is to determine the structural and vegetative characteristics of agricultural terrace gardens, which are part of traditional agriculture and whose use is decreasing day by day for various reasons and are in danger of extinction, and evaluate them in the context of cultural heritage. Within the scope of the study, nine of the agricultural terrace gardens in the district were examined in terms of their structural features (the width and height of the terrace wall, land slope, irrigation and drainage systems, the materials used in the construction of the terrace walls and the construction technique) and the plants used, and evaluated in the context oftangibleandintangible cultural heritage. The study on the terraces in the district identifies agricultural production on marginal lands unsuitable for agriculture, the materials used in the construction of the terraces are stones and rocks that are sometimes collected from a stream bed and sometimes obtained by breaking the bedrock on which the land is located, terrace walls are built with dry stone wall technique, in the construction of the walls In order to increase the durability, it has been determined that the old and traditional system, the beam application, is applied and the irrigation channels are used as the irrigation system on the terraces. It has been determined that the plants grown in agricultural terrace gardens are generally fruit types such as walnut, cherry, sour cherry, apple, mulberry, rosehip and cranberry. In addition, the importance of agricultural terraces in the region has been emphasized in terms of the fact that the plants produced on the terraces have been the main ingredient of products such as sweets, marmalades and molasses in the culinary culture of the district for centuries and contribute to many intangible cultural heritage elements such as traditional festivals, festivities and events. As a result of the study, some suggestions were made for the protection and sustainability of terraces, which are now in disrepair, due to migration from rural areas to cities, fragmentation of lands by inheritance and abandonment of agricultural activities.