MEDITERRANEAN - TURKEY : THE UNDERGROUND CITIES OF CAPPADOCIA
by Julie Rekai Rickerd



The siren song of Turkey is a powerful mix of nature, history, empires and religions dating back 3-million years. Nowhere is this more evident than in the region of Cappadocia in the central Turkish province of Anatolia.

The netherworldly landscape came about after the eruptions of Mount Erciyes in ancient times. The 3,916-meter-high volcano spewed burning lava over some 8,000 square miles. Years of high winds and erosion changed the topography. Acres of rock formations – some looking like fairy chimneys sporting snoods, others like wide pleats and mushrooms of all shapes and sizes – cover the terrain.

Volcanic debris has made the soil ideal for agriculture and viniculture. The fact that the rocks, a mixture of lava, ash, and mud called tufa, were soft and easy to carve until they made contact with the air, led to curious cultures of troglodytes that "go under the ground in holes, clefts and labyrinths, like dens and burrows", according to a 10-century history.

Although bones and utensils from 3500 BC and weaving looms from the early Bronze Age have been unearthed in the area, its "more recent" history dates from the Hittites who occupied Cappadocia until 1200 BC. Phrygians, Medes and Persians followed, as did Alexander the Great in 333 BC. The Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk and Ottoman empires, and the birth of Christianity all influenced the region, both militarily and religiously, and left in their wake generations of Cappadocians to live and worship in cities, churches and monasteries carved into, and beneath, the rocks.

The Goreme Valley, one of many, is home to 400 of about 3,000 rock churches built over the centuries. Père Guillaume de Jerphanion, a French Jesuit scholar, stumbled on their existence in 1907. Since the 1950s, extensive archeological activity has uncovered hundreds of remarkably preserved and often fresco-filled churches and monasteries.

The Goreme Open Air Museum is an excellent introduction to these phenomenal places of worship. Elmali (apple) church, hollowed out of the rock, has an apple-shaped dome sitting atop four columns. The interior has one large and two small apses, and paintings of Jesus’s consecration, baptism, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and Judas’s betrayal of Christ adorning the walls.

Yilani (snake) has neither dome nor columns. Its paintings depict the battles of St. George, St. Theodore, with a snake and other saints.

The decoration in Karanlik (dark) is the least faded because there is only a single, small window in the church. Biblical scenes appear to have been painted recently.

The monasteries are equipped with dining areas, wine-making and storage facilities all carved into the rock.

The drive from Goreme to Uchisar is a photographer’s dream. The view from the Uchisar Citadel spans the entire Goreme Valley. It is filled with tectonic rock marvels as far the eye can see, some rising to heights of 15 meters to 20 meters and varying in color from light gray to pink to burnished gold, depending on the time of day.

Derinkuyu and Kaymakli are two of an incredible 36 underground cities found in the 1960s. There are thought to be about 500 of these habitations in the area. Many descend to depths of 85 meters and can cover a couple of square miles. An intricate network of airshafts and underground water systems at one time sustained as many as 10,000 people. Wide passageways solved the claustrophobia problem then and now.

Although only four storys are open to the public, Derinkuyu is a six-story city and is thought to be connected to Kaymakli, some six miles away. It is an amazing experience to wander through living quarters, communal kitchens, granaries, barns, schools, churches, wine cellars and graveyards, all brilliantly fashioned out of this soft rock and all below ground. Huge stone doors served as protection against enemies. The engineering and architectural challenges the inhabitants faced are staggering.

Today, few locals live in the rock-carved homes, but many use them for storage, dovecotes and barns. Some have been converted to hotels and inns. Cottage industries abound. The small town of Avanos, for example, is renowned for its fine pottery. Its family enterprises go back generations. Cappadocia is also home to fine carpets and kilims, onyx mining and carving, delicious apples, apricots, almonds and good wines.

It is possible to get a taste of Cappadocia during a two-day stay, but to truly savor its wealth of natural and architectural wonders would take forever. The area is ideal for hiking or exploring on horseback or donkey, with valley after valley yielding magical visuals, a marriage of natural and man-made artistry. As an incentive, there is also the possibility of stumbling across any number of undiscovered rock churches and underground cities.


Photo : courtesy Turkish Culture and Tourism Office
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