Cappadocia - Cappadocia

Disambiguation - For toponyms of identical name, see Cappadocia (disambiguation).

Cappadocia is a region of the Central Anatolia Region in Turkey.

To know

There Cappadocia (in Turkish: Kapadokya; Greek Καππαδοκία), which means "land of beautiful horses", is a historical region ofAnatolia, once located in the area corresponding to the current one Turkey central, which includes parts of the provinces of Kayseri, Aksaray, Niğde is Nevşehir.

Cappadocia, together with the national park of Göreme, is characterized by a geological formation unique in the world and by its historical and cultural heritage such as to make it fall within the list of heritages ofUNESCO.

Geographical notes

The geological peculiarities of the site have meant that its landscapes are often described as "lunar". The typical geological formation, a limestone tuff, has undergone erosion for millions of years, acquiring unusual shapes and is soft enough to allow man to build his homes out of rock, giving rise to rock settlements, rather than buildings. rise from the ground. In this way, its lunar landscapes are full of caves and caves, both natural and artificial, many of which continue to be frequented and inhabited even today.

When to go

In Cappadocia it is very cold and snows in winter, but the landscape is still very beautiful to see. Extraordinary combination of snow and fairy chimneys mingle like in a fairytale. In the summer it is very dry and very hot, but the humidity level is not that high and therefore you don't sweat a lot. Balloon flights are only compromised on days of medium / strong wind, but in case of rain or snow the balloon can still fly unless clearly extreme conditions.

Background

For thousands of years, and to this day, the region has always been a place of human settlement. Some ancient civilizations flourished there, such as that of the Hittites, or others coming from theEurope or from the same regions ofAsia Minor, and each of them has left its own cultural mark in Cappadocia.

The geographical position has made Cappadocia a crossroads of trade routes for centuries, as well as being the object of repeated invasions. The inhabitants of the region have built underground shelters (examples that can still be visited are the cities of Kaymaklı is Derinkuyu) which allowed entire cities to take refuge underground, and to survive there for many months, without the need to risk external sorties.

Suggested readings

• Lafora, Carlos R. (1993). Tras las huellas del rock art in Capadocia, Turquía. Madrid: Tierra de Fuego, Librería-Editorial de Viajes. ISBN 84-86233-46-1 and ISBN 978-84-86233-46-4.
• Jerphanion, Guilliaume de: Les Eglises Rupestres de Cappadocia. París: Librairie Orientaleste Paul Geuther, 1925.
• Demir, Omer: Cappadocia: cradle of history. Promat, 1997. (ISBN 975-7334-07-3.)
• Kostof, Spiro & Carpenter, Malcolm C .: Caves of God: Cappadocia and its churches. Oxford University Press, 1989. (ISBN 0-19-506000-8.)
• Rodley, Lyn: Cave monasteries in Bizantyne Cappadocia. Cambridge University Press, 1986. (ISBN 0-521-26798-6.)
• Van Dam, Raymond: Kingdom of snow: Roman rule and Greek culture in Cappadocia. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. (ISBN 0-8122-3681-5.)

Territories and tourist destinations

Urban centers

Other destinations

How to get

By plane

It is the fastest and most comfortable way to reach Cappadocia. There are two main airports that you can use to reach Cappadocia. One of them is Kayseri Erkilet (ASR) who is located in Kayseri and almost an hour's drive to the center of the Cappadocia region. Turkish Airlines operates numerous direct (non-stop) flights from Istanbul Atatürk (IST) to Kayseri Erkilet. There are also daily flights from Smyrna (Izmir) in Kayseri street Istanbul. It is easy to arrange a shuttle bus transfer from Kayseri Airport in Cappadocia. Other companies that serve this airport are there Pegasus Airlines and the Sun Express.

The second is Nevşehir Kapadokya Airport (NAV), which is located in the city of Gülşehir in the province of Nevşehir. Turkish Airlines operates direct flights from Istanbul Atatürk to Nevşehir Kapadokya twice a day. To reach your hotel, especially if outside Nevşehir, it is advisable to ask the structure where you have booked to organize the transport; in practice they will inform a private agency that carries out group transports from the airport to neighboring countries at a low price. The alternative is to take a much more expensive taxi. You can also try to join the buses waiting for other tourists with the risk that they are full.

On the train

Kayseri it is on a busy railway line. You can find trains heading to Kayseri from almost any train station in the Turkey. From Kayseri, a bus is available to go to Göreme.

By bus

Most of the bus companies serve the cities of Nevşehir is Göreme. Travel times, from each city, are:

• Antalya (Antalya) - 9 hours
• Ankara - 5 hours
• Bursa - 11 hours
• Çanakkale - 17 hours
• Konya - 4 hours
• Istanbul - 12 hours
• Pamukkale - 11 hours
• Smyrna (Izmir) - 12 hours

How to get around

By car

Due to the low population density which leads to limited public transport, and the fact that the sights are scattered (Cappadocia is a region, not a restricted area), one can consider either renting a car or buying a tourist package.

However, it is possible to come across car rentals looking to snatch exorbitant prices of up to 100 TL per day. Bargaining is the way to go in these cases.

By bus

The short journeys are covered by private minivans whose prices are negotiable, while the longer ones are covered by buses whose prices are fixed and similar (if not exactly the same) between the various companies.

What see

Of great visual impact in Cappadocia is certainly the landscape populated by numerous limestone and volcanic tuff formations of the ancient Monte Argeo, which rises in the distance at 3,916 meters above sea level. The erosion of water and wind has shaped nature creating countless extraordinary ones buildings who call here fairy chimneys to underline the fairytale suggestion they emanate.
But not only has nature shaped this plateau; even the hand of man has intervened by digging homes and churches in the tufaceous pinnacles, while in the subsoil shelters have been created for the population, so numerous that they almost constitute cities.

From the fourth century, Christian populations as well as many monks settled in these valleys, especially after the invasion of Arab people in the seventh century. They created numerous monasteries and as many rock churches, that is, excavated in the limestone rock, up to the 13th century. To date, more than three hundred have been discovered. They were conceived as a basilica and some of them even have three naves. They are all rich in frescoes that show us a genuinely popular art, with brightly colored figures; sometimes these works deviate from the imprint generically naive to achieve good and highly suggestive results.
In the eighth century the pictorial decoration in rock churches is affected by the period iconoclast, when the representations of saints and the divinity were banned, and it was reduced to proposing floral motifs or geometric decorations. When in 787 the Council of Nicaea finally allowed the cult of images as symbol of the reality that is represented there, the frescoes of the rock churches had a new vitality and produced in large quantities an iconography centered above all on the main episodes in the life of Jesus, drawing from the Gospels and also from the apocryphal books.
The influence of Byzantine painting is undeniable and evident. Towards the end of the 12th century, the intensification of the Seljuk attacks undermined the vitality of the monasteries, which gradually and inexorably emptied themselves. The emergence of the Arab religion then saw the complete abandonment of the churches and rock monasteries, leaving the testimony of their frescoes which represent the only remaining expression of oriental monastic art from that period. Fortunately these works survived the period of religious intolerance, when several paintings were disfigured in an attempt to erase them forever.
In the region among the most interesting we have the Gümüşler Monastery a short distance from Niğde.

The underground cities they are agglomerations of tunnels that join together hundreds of rooms dug underground that develop on several levels deeper and deeper. They were used by the population to find refuge when the raids of warring armies approached the area. All the population took refuge in these cities, also sheltering herds, fodder and food supplies in order to resist for a long time, hidden from the eyes of the invaders. Of the appropriate fireplaces, well disguised, they guaranteed the exchange of air.
The visit of these city it is particularly engaging. The passage from one environment to another always reveals new glimpses that can almost be defined architectures, and the whole is permeated with a remarkable atmosphere of mystery. Many of these underground cities are still used by the population of the modern villages above, mainly as cellars or as shelters for tools. Among the cities that can be visited by tourists, that of Derinkuyu.
Visiting underground cities is definitely not recommended for those suffering from claustrophobia.

The Çiniligöl lake is the largest of the glacial lakes located in the Bolkar Mountains, while the Nar lake it is a crater brackish lake.

What to do

• Hot air balloon flight. Although advertised with very inflated prices, a 60-minute balloon ride with basic breakfast costs around 90/100 euros (December 2013). One of the most exciting and must-see experiences on a trip to Cappadocia is the balloon flight. It should be borne in mind that it is not a risk-free activity and that in June 2013, 3 people lost their lives due to an accident (in addition to the others more or less seriously injured). 
• ^{[link not working]}Cappadocia Jazz Days (Kapadokya Caz Günleri). Free entry. A week between November and December. Since 2010 this initiative has taken place throughout Cappadocia which consists of organizing jazz concerts in the main meeting points by some of the best musicians in the country. 

At the table

Safety

Other projects

• Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Cappadocia
• Commons contains images or other files on Cappadocia