Neighbourhood and house typology have been the topic of many studies in Ottoman urban historiography. Although historians have produced plenty of studies, mostly articles, relating to neighborhood typology with the aim of providing a theoretical basis, few of them provide an adequate new approach. This study offers a new method of analyzing neighborhood structures and house typology, demonstrated on the basis of Bakhchisaray for the period 1650-1675. Using the Edraw-Max architectural software, we have been able to generate some visual estimates by processing data obtained from the Bakhchisaray qadi court registers (sicils). The first step of our method is to locate sicil-records of immovable property sales, most often for houses. Thereupon neighborhood images are created on the basis of information on buildings adjacent to buildings that are the subject of a sale. In this way, we are able to address questions such as who was the neighbour of whom, whether a house or other building was constructed in a regular or haphazard manner and what were the physical characteristics of the relevant structures. In addition, we can assess whether or not elite and ordinary people lived in the same neighbourhood.

Assessments have been made on two neighbourhoods of Bakhchisaray that frequently occur in the court registers—Cami-i Kebir and Koba Cami. Of particular interest is visualizing the Cami-i Kebir neighbourhood, since the palace where Crimean Khan lived was located in this neighbourhood. The other neighbourhood visualization is of interest because it had the largest bazaar of the city, as well as many shops, inns and a large caravanserai. While the former neighbourhood was mostly administrative, the latter was more commercial. The core of this study relates to the structural features of these neighbourhoods.

By analyzing archival data and on this basis reviewing recent studies, we indicate some differences and similarities between Ottoman and Crimean neighbourhoods. We also endeavor to help understand which factors determined houses prices—features such as the main material of these buildings, their sizes, additional parts (kitchen, bath, toilet, garden, courtyard, cellar, barn), whether single or two storey, water resources, proximity to smallermarkets or larger bazaars. Thereby, it is possible to arrive at a house typology for Bakhchisaray.