A Day in Cappadocia

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Oguzhan Avcituncer, our guide, Angela and Teresa both from Melbourne, set out today to discover Cappadocia - an extensive area around the centre of Turkey. We began from Nevsehir, travelling to a nearby underground city where over 10,000 people once lived. Such cities were first established around 8,000 BC in pagan times. People chose these extensive and linked caves as their homes to protect them from various invasions. Being in a volcanic region enabled people to live underground because the ground above them was made of pumice stone, the fruit of the nearby volcanoes, which allowed the transition of fresh air thfrough the rock. The underground cities included wineries, carpet making facilities, deep wells, ventilation shafts, shrines and chapels. The chapels provided places for the worship of pagan gods in the first place and later the Christian God. The early pagan elders believed religion was a good way of keeping people together in the underground community which could be quite oppressive at times. People finished living in these underground cities around the 16th Century.

We then travelled by car to the Goreme Valley where people who lived in these underground areas established cave churches. Beautiful wall paintings depicting scenes from the old and new testaments are still visible in these caves. Some would say these underground Christian communities, which were established around the 4th Century at the time when Constantine declared Christianity to be the official religion of the Roman Empire, to be the beginning of monastic life. One cave we saw shows a long community meal table. Aisles are evident in these early churches and graves were placed beneath their floors. The paintings in these underground Churches were enhanced during the period of the Crusades around the 12th Century.

Today 70 million people live in Turkey and 3 million people visit annually. A good reference text is Turkish Odyssey by Serif Yenen (3rd Edition).

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Photos

A Church in the Underground City
The altar is in the foreground

Lunch Cappadocia Style
From Left Angela, Teresa and Oguzhan

A Wine Dispenser
This dispenser is designed to keep the wine cool as well as provide an effective way of pouring the wine

Work Must Go On
The city of Urgup in Cappadocia