Travel Destination: Cappadocia, Turkey - Land Of Wonders
Combined forces of mankind and nature have created three wonders of Cappadocia- its “fairy chimneys” (coneshaped pillars of tuff capped with basalt) in the unique valleys that look like another planet, ancient underground cities and 1500-year old rock cut Christian churches.
All of it is concentrated in the area of approximately 100×100 km in the central part of Turkey. Humans first set foot in the region about 10,000 years ago. Then, from 3,500 to 1,200 BC Cappadocia was a part of a powerful Hittite state. Phrygians took over the administration in the 8th century BC. Five hundred years later they were replaced by Persians. Alexander the Great occupied the territory in 333 BC. Cappadocia’s past history includes being a Roman state, a part of the Byzantine Empire, a place where many early Christian saints including St.Paul found a shelter, where they lived and taught.
Finally, Cappadocia has become a noticable region of modern Turkey with predominant importance of agriculture and tourism.
WHAT TO SEE AND WHERE: Fairy Chimneys were created as a result of wind and water erosion when small harder pieces of rock remained on top of larger and softer rock columns.
This out-of-this-world landscape impressed George Lucas so much that his original plan was to shoot some Star Wars’ episodes in this area. Located in a spectacular valley between towns of Nevseshir and Urgup there are very different, interesting fairy chimneys. UNESCO declared the area a World Heritage Site. Some of the fairy chimneys have been inhabited for many years, with rooms, windows and staircases being laboriously curved inside creating up to 5-storey structures inside. Today some of these are also providing services to tourism as pensions.
The largest of 36 underground cities in the area is at Derinkuyu. It is at a distance of 29 km from Nevsehir, the provincial center of 7,000 people. Derinkuyu underground city is located under a hill, was found by chance and opened to the public in 1965. It covers a 4 square km area and was calculated as able to shelter 2,000 households on 7 floors beneath the surface, reaching a depth of 70 to 85 meters. Archeologists tend to believe that the Hittites were the starters of the underground communities which in the 6th and 7th were expanded by early Christians into a very extensive complexes with air shafts, kitchens, living quarters, churches, water wells, horse stables and wine cellars.
These elaborate subterranean systems were used by the people who had accepted Christianity against their enemies both as a shelter and as a safe place to carry out their worship. Next largest underground city is at Kaymakly, 20 km from Nevsehir. Despite of the fact that only four underground levels have been excavated, there are speculations that there can be as many as 11 in total. There is also a tunnel that connects the underground cities of Kaymakli and Derinkuyu (9 km long!) that has a width of of over 2 meters, but unfortunatley it is not opened to the public as parts of the tunnel have collapsed.
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