Cappadocia History Of Cappadocia

Cappadocia History, History Of Cappadocia

The history of Cappadocia began with the eruptions of three volcanoes (Erciyes Dağı near Kayseri, Melendiz Dağı near Niğde, and Göllüdağ between them), as much as 10 million years ago. The eruptions spread a thick layer of hot volcanic ash over the region, which hardened into a soft, porous stone called tufa.

Over aeons of geological time, wind, water and sand erosion wore away portions of the tufa, carving it into elaborate and unearthly shapes. Boulders of hard stone, caught in the tufa and then exposed by erosion, protect the tufa directly beneath from further erosion. The result is a column or cone of tufa with a boulder perched on top, whimsically called a peribaca, or 'fairy chimney'. Entire valleys are filled with these formations, many of them amusingly phallic in appearance.

The tufa was easily worked with primitive tools and the inhabitants learned early that sturdy dwellings could be cut from it with a minimum of fuss. A cave could be carved out very quickly and, if the family expanded, more easy carving could produce a nursery or store room in next to no time.

When invaders flooded across the land bridge between Europe and Asia, Cappadocians went underground, carving elaborate multi-level cave cities beneath the surface of the earth and only coming to the surface to tend their fields.

When Christianity arrived in Cappado­cia, its adherents found that cave churches, complete with elaborate decoration, could be carved from the rock as easily as dwell­ings. Large Christian communities thrived here and their rock-hewn churches became a unique art form. Arab armies swept through in the 7th century but the Christians retreated into their caves again, rolling stone wheel-doors across the entrances.

Many of the caves and villages were in-habited by the descendants of these early settlers until this century, when the crum-bling of the Ottoman Empire forced the reorganisation of the Middle East along ethno-political lines.