Examination of spatial characteristics of historical cities by using space syntax method, Elazığ Harput case

Historical city centers are very important and valuable urban areas due to the natural, cultural and social layers they contain. It is seen that these cities have turned into unqualified urban spaces due to the rapid population growth, the late protection understanding, cultural, natural, political reasons. For this reason, the aim of the study is to determine how the spatial characteristics of the historical city center of Harput, which has an important place in history but has lost this importance to a great extent, change periodically and to investigate the reasons underlying these changes on a mathematical basis. For this purpose, literature searches were made, general information about the historical city center of Harput and maps of the different periods it had been through were obtained. By using these maps as a base, the spatial analyzes of the study area were examined through the Space Syntax method. In line with the data obtained, these maps were evaluated holistically and spatial problems of the area were determined.As a result of these determinations, a recommendation segment map was created. The created segment map was analyzed by the Depthmap X program. The analysis results of the suggested segments were compared with the current analysis results, and the contributions of the suggestions to the field of study were discussed. As a result of the study; It has been observed that the proposals developed for the historical city center of Harput have increased the global and local integration values by approximately 20%. In addition, it was determined that accessibility increased by 39%,in the historical city center. Keywords: space syntax, historical cities