Cappadocia

Cappadocia – The Ihlara Valley

After an interesting week here in Prague with the events marking the twentieth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, I shall return to writing about our trip last month to Asia and back.

The final place we visited in Cappadocia was the Ihlara Valley. This lies about 40km south-west of Derinkuyu and was somewhere I had not visited during my 1975 trip. It is located near Mount Hasan and Mount Melendiz, two of the now extinct volcanoes whose past eruptions have left Cappadocia covered with volcanic lava and ash. The Ihlara Valley or Gorge has been formed by the Melendiz River cutting down through this soft rock to depth of around 100metres over a distance of some 14km.

There are a limited number of access points to the valley. The one we used was about 4km from the village of Ihlara, adjacent to a cliff top restaurant overlooking the valley. Here we ate a late lunch following our morning exertions exploring the underground city at Derinkuyu. From the side of the restaurant there is a series of more than 300 steps that are part of the route that leads down to the valley floor. Walking down, I was very conscious that at the end of the visit, I would have to walk back up from whence I’d come!

Church carved into the cliffside of the Ihlara Valley © Ricky Yates

Within the Ihlara Valley, as in the much more famous Göreme Valley, there are a series of ancient Churches carved into the soft rock of the cliff sides. Like the Göreme Valley Churches, those in the Ihlara Valley are also decorated with frescoes and paintings. Unfortunately, this ancient artwork has suffered much more than in Göreme, from both the natural elements of rain and damp, as well as mindless vandalism. Only recently has the area been made secure with an entry fee being charged and the valley closed at night.

Unfortunately, there are not staff supervising each of the Churches to prevent idiots carving their names, or deal with visitors ignoring notices about not using flash when taking photographs, to avoid any further damage to the paintings. The legible carved names on both the Church walls and the helpful signposts to the different Churches were almost without exception, Turkish names. I was left to wonder if those self-same people would dare do the same thing to the decoration on the wall of a mosque. I think I know the answer to my question!

We only had a little over two hours to explore the valley before the light began to fade. Sunlight disappears far earlier at the valley floor because of the surrounding high cliffs. It would have been wonderful to walk the length of the valley and visit far more Churches than the few we were able to visit before returning up those 300+ steps!

The Underground City at Derinkuyu

Because of the soft nature of much of the rock that covers Cappadocia, not only are there Underground Churches but also several complete Underground Cities. One of the most interesting and best preserved is at Derinkuyu in the south-west of Cappadocia, located between the cities of Nevsehir and Nigde.

The early part of the Underground City at Derinkuyu pre-dates the Christian era, parts of it belonging to the 8^th and 7^th centuries BC. It was used by Christians seeking to hide from Roman persecution during the first three centuries AD and then extended and used once more between the 5^th and 10^th centuries AD during the middle Byzantine period. Christians hid in this and other Underground Cities like it, to escape attacks from Arab Islamists which occurred from the 7^th century AD onwards.

Carved out storage facilities at Derinkuyu © Ricky Yates

Door in the form of a millstone in the Underground City © Ricky Yates

The Underground City at Derinkuyu has 11 different levels and descends to a depth of c85 metres. Within it there are rooms for food storage, kitchens, churches, stables, wine or oil presses, and shafts for ventilation. These ventilation shafts go down to the aquifer and also served as wells to provide fresh water. Large circular stones similar to millstones, could be rolled across each entrance, to prevent unwanted visitors. Such is the size of the complex, it was possible for many thousands of people to live underground within it for several months at a time.

Although first opened to the public in 1969, it is still only possible to visit 10% of the total complex. Those parts open to the public are reasonably well lit but in numerous places there is a very serious lack of headroom! It is certainly not a place to visit if you suffer in any way from claustrophobia!

The Underground City at Derinkuyu is another place I had visited during my 1975 trip and which I revisited with Sybille on Friday 16^th October 2009. During my recent visit, I was very much struck as to how nothing had really changed from how I remembered it looking on my previous visit. Inevitably, it is not that easy to photograph though I hope these accompanying images will help to give some picture of this amazing construction.

Just for Karen, who seems to be the only person regularly commenting on my blog at present, (even though I know many others read it but don’t comment), here is a picture of me sitting within the Underground City complex at Derinkuyu, taken during my 1975 visit, showing me with vastly more hair and dressed to look like a good Australian (which I’m not!), in my shorts and long white socks!

Myself in 1975 inside the Underground City at Derinkuyu © Ricky Yates

Cappadocia – Land of Underground Churches

Old Testament Prophet with scroll © Sybille Yates

Along with Fairy Chimneys, the other unique attraction in Cappadocia is a whole series of Underground Churches, carved into the soft rock. Most have been decorated internally with an amazing variety of wall paintings and frescoes. There are rock carved Churches scattered right across Cappadocia but some of the most interesting and best preserved, lie in the upper part of the Göreme Valley, a few kilometres west of Ürgüp.

Christians settled in this part of Cappadocia in the second and third centuries AD. They carved and built these Churches and associated settlements, seeking to escape Roman persecution of their faith. After the Roman Empire adopted the Christian faith, there was less need to hide away in this remote area. But monastic and teaching communities remained.

From the seventh century AD and onwards, the increasing spread of Islam led more Christians to settle or re-settle here. Existing Churches were altered and expanded and newer ones carved out of the soft rock. From what I can discover, these Churches were not abandoned until sometime in the thirteenth century.

When I stayed in Ürgüp and visited these fascinating Churches in the Göreme Valley back in 1975, there were relatively few visitors and virtually no tourist infrastructure. A local Turkish young man took us around, showing us how to reach some of the more interesting and accessible ones. Access to some Churches was by steps cut into the cliff face which would send present-day health and safety executives into apoplexy.

Göreme 1975 - no hard surfaced access paths © Ricky Yates

Göreme 2009 - note the hardsurfaced path and guide ropes © Ricky Yates

This complex of Churches is now designated the Göreme Valley Open-Air Museum. The whole area is fenced off and managed. An entrance fee is charged, access paths made of stone cobbles have been laid, and ladders with handrails erected to allow for safer access to the Churches. Below the pedestrian entrance to the site, there is a coach and car park, with the usual associated stalls selling touristy souvenirs.

Our Turkish Guide in 1975 - note the cliff face steps to get to where he is sitting! © Ricky Yates

View across Cappadocia from Church entrance - note stairway with handrails to give safe access © Ricky Yates — View across Cappadocia from Church entrance in 2009 - note stairway with handrails to give safe access © Ricky Yates

Inevitably, many of the wall paintings and frescoes are damaged. Partly this is due to damp, wind and temperature change. But many of the paintings at lower levels were also vandalised in the past by shepherd boys and similar people who used the cave Churches for shelter and believed, according to Islam, that the images were sinful. Certainly the paintings and frescoes are now being protected from any further damage, flashlight photography is banned and it would appear that at least some are beginning to be restored.

The Baptism of Christ taken with flash in 1975 © Ricky Yates	The Resurrection of Christ taken without flash 2009 © Sybille Yates
The Crucifixion taken with flash in 1975 © Ricky Yates	The Crucifixion taken without flash in 2009. Note that the damage shown on the 1975 photo has been repaired © Sybille Yates

The iconic image of Christ Pantocrator was one of the first images of Christ developed in the Early Christian Church and remains a central icon of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the half-length image, Christ holds the New Testament in his left hand and makes the gesture of teaching or of blessing with his right. Below are two different examples from the Göreme Underground Churches taken 35 years apart.

Christ Pantocrator taken in 1975 with flash © Ricky Yates

Christ Pantocrator taken in 2009 without flash © Sybille Yates

Some of the early decoration of the Churches was quite simple in design and done with red pigment directly onto the walls. An example of this is below left. Later decoration was much more advanced with what is clearly recognisable as an Eastern Orthodox artistic style. These paintings were usually done on a thin layer of plaster laid over the bare stone walls, often covering up the earlier simple decoration.

Early Church decoration in red pigment © Ricky Yates

The Last Supper - an example of a later style of painting © Ricky Yates

Here from the Tokali Church, the largest Church in the Goreme Valley, is an example of both early and later styles of decoration. It is possible to see where some later painting on plaster has been placed over the earlier simple decoration that had been painted directly on the rock walls.

Painting in the Tokali Church with earlier simple decoration also visible © Sybille Yates

Cappadocia Landscape

I remarked in my previous post, that the landscape of Cappadocia in places looks more lunar than earthly! I think the two photographs above give a fairly clear indication of what I mean. The one on the left is a scanned slide taken during my trip in 1975. Unfortunately, the colour of the foreground has faded somewhat owing to the passing of 35 years. The one on the right is of the same area but from a slightly different angle, taken during my recent trip in October 2009.

The soft nature of so much of the rock has lent itself to being carved into, in order to provide houses, stables for animals, dovecotes, storage facilities and the like. These days, not many people live in purely cave dwellings. But many houses with stone frontages often still extend backwards into older hillside caves.

Below is a picture of the village of Uchisar which lies immediately below the highest point of this amazing lunar landscape. Caves carved into the rock face can be seen in conjunction with more modern village houses.

The village of Uchisar, Cappadocia © Ricky Yates

Cappadocia – Land of Fairy Chimneys

Fairy Chimneys in Cappadocia © Ricky Yates

In the early afternoon of Wednesday 14^th October 2009, we drove into the town of Ürgüp, located in the central Anatolian region usually known by its ancient name of Cappadocia. Here the landscape in places looks more lunar than earthly! This is the result of eruptions from two or three nearby, now extinct volcanoes, which covered the surrounding area with volcanic lava and ash. The resultant landforms are quite spectacular and attract many visitors.

Driving into Ürgüp, we spotted the Melis Hotel and went to enquire about the cost and availability of rooms. The hotel attracted me for two reasons. One was that it was a well preserved old building, very much in keeping with the surrounding landscape. Subsequently, I discovered that it is a 300 year old Greek House which has been very sympathetically renovated and extended. The other attraction was that it had an outdoor swimming pool which still had water in it. Despite the daytime temperature being between 25 – 30 degrees Celsius, various other hotels we had seen in Ürgüp and elsewhere, had already emptied their pools for the forthcoming winter.

The Rev’d John Skinner, with whom we stayed at Selcuk the previous Sunday night, had wisely advised us never to pay the advertised price for a hotel room whilst in Turkey. Having been shown various rooms and been told what the ‘normal price’ for each of these was, I successfully negotiated a ‘special price’ for us staying for three nights and paying in cash with Euro notes. I got a reduction of 16.66%!!!! Something we had discovered in Croatia in July and now in Turkey, is that the role the US dollar used to have for travellers 20 – 30 years ago, has now been replaced by the Euro. Carrying and paying cash in Euro gave us better deals on numerous occasions during our trip.

The outstanding feature of the Cappadocian landscape is one that I have already featured in my previously post. Whilst the most of the lava rock surface is hard, fissures in the rock have allowed water to penetrate and erode the much softer rock beneath. Once exposed, this softer rock has then been further eroded by wind-blown sand grains. This has created in numerous parts of Cappadocia, a series of landforms usually known as ‘fairy chimneys’. They are quite extraordinary as I hope you will see from the accompanying photographs.

Fairy Chimney In Cappadocia © Ricky Yates	Divided Fairy Chimney in Cappadocia © Ricky Yates
Fairy Chimney in Cappadocia © Ricky Yates	Fairy Chimneys in shape of a Swan © Ricky Yates _

The hard caps on top of the ‘chimneys’ protect the softer rock beneath. However, the soft rock does still slowly erode, eventually causing the collapse of the chimney. The different colour and texture of the various rock layers is evident in these photos.