Blog 22: Adana Road Trip 3 – Cappadocia – PART 1: History

Adana Road Trip – Cappadocia – PART 1: History

Cappadocia is the name of a region which is famous all round the world for its thousands of fairy like chimneys stone formations which many have been hollowed out of rocks. These rocks are easy to carve out thanks to fallout of Volcanic activity millions of years ago. This hollowed out caves which  have been made over thousands of years were the homes and many still are the homes, restaurants and hotels of today. I even saw a fair chimney cave home for sale!! Wow!

  Cappadocia is about a 3.5 hour drive from Adana

And Cappadocia is also famous for its underground cities like those at Kaymakli near Nevsehir, 8 stories deep.  (Kaymakli is reviewed later in this blog). It’s really a site to behold and spectacular to say the least. 

If you go to Turkey then you must visit Cappadocia! It is number 1 on my list and this road trip is my 2^nd to this location as I love the place!!

History in Brief:

Cappadocia’s name can be traced back to the 6^th Century BC and is even recorded in the Bible.

Acts 2:9 New King James Version (NKJV) ⁹ Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia. 

Cappadocia lies in eastern Anatolia, in the center of Turkey. The area consists of a high plateau over 1000 m in altitude that is pierced by volcanic peaks, with Mount Erciyes ( Ancient Argaeus) near Kayseri (ancient Caesarea) being the tallest at 3916 m.

The area is a story of empires and marauding armies and is very significant place of early Christians hiding from these armies. 

Cappodocia has being ruled by the Persians and Alexander the Great ,  the Greeks, the Macedonians, the Romans, the Byzantines , the Ottomans and as well as  interesting Armenian, Crusader histories. 

The region was gradually succeeded by the Ottoman Empire over course of the 15th century until till the 20^th century and now remains now part of the modern state of Turkey.

Cappadocia contains several underground cities that were used largely by early Christians as hiding places before Christianity became an accepted religion.

There are many fantastic underground churches in the Cappadocia region. They have been calved out of the rock and in many cases, even inside the fairy chimney formations which is just fantastic to see and literally straight out of Star Wars!! These churches are decorated with wonderful early Christian paintings on their walls and ceilings dating back to the early centuries AD.

Below: El Nazar "Fair Chiminy" Church near Goreme.

Although there is early Greek titles explaining the painting, mostly the early Christians did their teaching via pictures so you can see the entire story of Christ in story book fashion around the walls. Very impressive!

Many of these paintings are faded however there are still many surprisingly vivid in colour and clarity which is supprising after so many centuries. Unfortunately many of these also bare the signs of vandalism. 

You can see a great number of saints depicted in the paintings have had their eyes chipped away, only the very highest on the ceilings staying in tacked. But still, it’s all very impressive and gives you a good indication of the life and faith of the early Christians.   

  Above: Christian Paintings at El Nazar Church near Goreme.

It is an unfortunate legacy all around Turkey that many historical sites bare signs of graffiti and vandalism, both historical and modern. I guess if you have history all around you and everywhere you look, it’s not so valuable to you and so you don’t have agencies or establishments to watch over and protect it like we do at home through Rangers or National Parks personnel enforcing fines.  

Many Turkish houses (or buildings structures because they are not be built to any plan or Development Application) close by ruins you can see have made use of some of those ancient stone as building blocks for their buildings!

 To an Australian, with a built “Colonial” Australian history of only a couple of hundred years, and an indigenous history that maybe one of the oldest in the world, but has few significant land marks other than ancient carvings, cave paintings and burial sites, it’s hard to understand why many of Turkeys historical sites aren’t better preserved or protected.  We have few so I guess they are more precious to us. In Australia we protect what history we have and the indigenous sites of the aboriginal people are sacred, and the source or protest if they are endangered by some big mining company. 

Below is one of the underground churches of the open-air museum near Goreme. It has the best examples of early Christian paintings that you will see and mostly intact. Unfortunately you can't take photos so buy a Cappadocia book, they are full of great pictures. They only 10 lira in the towns or 20 lira or Euro near from the tourist shops near the sites (buy in the townships shops!!)

I did sneak some video of one of the other churches at this site. Below. :-)

Turkey is the cradle of whole civilizations, has archaeology of wholes cites and is wonderland of precious historical sites beyond words or belief! And a great many of them are within easy reach of the city of Adana! Like Cappadocia and these wonderfully fascinating underground cities.

These underground cities in Cappadocia have vast defence networks of traps throughout their many levels against Roman and Muslim armies. These defence systems were mainly used against the Romans. 

Below:  Kaymakli underground city near Nevsehir. 

Warning, is not for the claustrophobic! They will take your money at the ticket office, you will enter the first tunnel and realize you can't go further and they will NOT refund you money! (My wife and parents realized at the first opening down the steps they could not go further so the few steps cost them full admission. They were also a little rude to us when we asked for refund. I went on alone)

So if your a little claustrophobic, get a postcard and save yourself the panic attacks. 

There are narrow channels between living spaces, they are long and small and if you're tall you may find yourself on your hands and knees.

Below:  Video Kaymakli underground city

My tip: Hire a local guide. 40 Lira should do the job. You'll feel better and learn some along the way. It will be a better experience for a little extra cost. Guides are waiting at the entry ways. Bargain, don't take their first price. Below is a picture of a guide bargaining with tourist near the entry way into the underground city.

 The tunnel systems have thin corridors where only a single person could pass and therefore take away the Roman fighting advantage of fighting in organised groups. The Romans were easy to pick them off in these thin corridors.

Cappadocia is truly a remarkable and historical place filled with fascination and wonderful ancient underground and fair chimney churches. It has to be seen to be believed and a truly a wonder of the world. Where else can you book a motel which has been carved out of rock a thousand years before and stay in those caves today!

In Part two I will give tips, show some great places in Cappadocia, tours and how to get around. This first blog was just some setting the scene and history.

Andrew