The coastal town of Bodrum, in southwestern Turkey, is the home of the gulet. Gulets are a type of two- or three-masted wooden sailing boat, and have been used since antiquity for fishing and sponge diving off the Turkish coast, or by traders moving their goods around the Mediterranean. Today, gulets are mainly used for tourist cruises, but they are still made in boatyards across Bodrum, and, apart from the use of some electronic tools, traditional methods of craftsmanship remain little changed in their production. Durable wood such as teak, maun and iroko are chiefly used to construct the boats, which each take between 9 and 12 months to complete.
