Cappadocia South 30 April 2015

Woke up early and got really good shots of the ball on over Cappadocia.  Wonderful!

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 Where candles were lit in the wall

 A dugout for clay pots

Early cave markings.

 The alter in the very early church

Balloons over Cappadocia Early morning.

Tunnels and

Early markings on the cave walls

Typical early Greek style houses

The pigeon valley

Cave houses

Graves in the village of cave dwellers

 Early morning balloons from our balcony

And some more. This was taken at sunrise.

We traveled to the underground city. In the first level, it was used by cattle as stable. But this was in later times. Initially it was thought that the early Hittites first carved out the first level. It is thought this could have been around 1800 bc,  but no one really knows. They used this as a place to hide from the Persians who eventually defeated them and also used this as a place to hide. It was then occupied by the early Christians, and at that time there were up to 5000 inhabitants. The walkways are steep and narrow between the levels, and to foil their enemies they built square holes that were covered during the day when olive oil lamps were burning,  but uncovered at night so their enemies would fall through at night if they tried to invade.  They only lived underground when they felt they were under threat. Early Christians (1st and 2nd century) used it as hiding place from the Romans who were very hostile to Christians. THIS changed in 400AD when the Romans adopted Christianity,  and the Romans themselves used the caves to hide from marauding Arabs, in the 8th century. Cappadocia was largely Greek and Christian until the transfer of faiths in 1924 when the Greeks (Christians) went to Greece and the Muslims in Greece came to live in Turkey, a bit like the splitting of India and Pakistan in 1948.
 Anyway the Eastern orthodox used icons and religious paintings in their churches to tell the stories of the New Testament to the illiterate who lived in the area. This was a common way of spreading Christianity 1000 years ago.
People used these caves, particularly the early Christians of the 1st and 2nd centuries. They buried down to the first 4 levels, but there are 8 levels in total, the last 4 levels being dug by the Romans during the time of the eastend Roman empire.They were hiding from the Arabs, this was later.
 This area was discovered by a farmer in 1960, and is protected by UNESCO (as one of the many archeological sites in the area.


The agriculture in the area is quite interesting, to fertilise the volcanic ash soil, the farmers made little houses in the fairy chimneys for the pigeons and once a year they collect the droppings to fertilise the soil. The other interesting thing is that fruit is brought in from the Mediterranean coast and stored underground in food stores,  in a town Ortarisar. Because of the constant temp fruit, lemons, oranges, pomegranates are individually wrapped and stored underground through the winter.  Come spring,  the rotten ones are removed and then dried out and used as fuel (burned along with coal) the following winter,  and the good ones are then sold.

There are a lot of street vendors selling dried figs, apricots and other dried fruits. For thirsty tourists, vendors squeeze oranges and pomegranates. Pomegranate juice is delicious. It takes
about 4 pomegranates for a small cup and was 5 TL, about 2€.


In this town there are a number of Syrian refugees, who work with the lemons in the underground food stores. The Turks are not so happy about this, as they take work (for less) and raise the price of rents, a common theme found elsewhere.
Until 1960 a lot of Muslims and Christians lived side by side, in cave houses. They lived together, died together and were buried in the same cemeteries,  a bit like the old Yugoslavia.  After the collapse of caves in one of these villages,  these people were resettled in modern new houses as living in caves was considered too dangerous long term. A lot of the so called cave hotels are actually built on the sides of hills, rather than the old hollowed out caves of ancient times. It is easy to see the construction of new cave hotels going on.
It is interesting to see obviously Greek villages in Turkey. The style and cuisine are those of Greece,  and the similarities of the two countries are obvious. The main differences are one has monasteries and churches,  the other mosques and loudspeakers. You hear the mosques from one hour before sunrise to an hour after sunset five times a day, often a mosque clashing with the next one. Apart from this, the similarities are quite marked.