The heart of today's Turkey is Cappadocia, a historical region located in the central part of the country. This region is interesting not only for its extraordinary nature, but also for the opportunity to touch the history of the first centuries of the Christian Church.
At the first meeting with Cappadocia, one can not help thinking that you are on a different planet - the landscapes that open up to the eye are so unique and similar to anything. There are volcanoes with snow-capped peaks, low free-standing mountains, rocky massifs and fertile valleys.
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How to get to Cappadocia
Since there is no direct communication between Russia and the cities of central Turkey, tourists have to fly first to Istanbul. Next - about an hour flight by domestic Turkish airlines to Kayseri or Nevshehira.
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Underground cities and shrines of Cappadocia
- Nevsehir is one of the few cities in Cappadocia where people, like five hundred years ago, live in tuff caves, refurbishing them into modern dwellings.
- Urgup is remarkable for unique cave houses, as well as a temple and a house where St. John prayed and lived.
- To Goreme. The main attraction here is an open-air museum, which includes about 30 cave churches
- Derinkuyu - an ancient underground city near Nevsehir, built in the 8th-7th century BC, which was used by early Christians to hide from the oppressors of Arabs.
- Kaymakly - another underground city, connected with Derinkuyu 9-kilometer tunnel. At the moment, archaeologists have excavated eight floors, but only the top four are open for visits.
- the Ihlara gorge is a deep and long canyon of volcanic origin (almost 14 km), in the steep walls of which the hermit Christians built a number of temples, connecting them with a branched network of transitions.
- Rent a scooter and go explore the local valleys: the quaintness of the landscapes and their variety amaze and in additional comments, in general, do not need.
- To make an appointment for a mini-group tour on the route Göreme - Ihlara Canyon - the underground city of Derinkuyu. These places are separated from each other at a decent distance, and the detailed story of the guide will come in handy.
- Do not spare money and at sunrise climb the sky in a hot air balloon, view the surrounding landscapes from a bird's eye view and make unique photographs.
- Go through the streets of Goreme, look into the souvenir shops and, perhaps, even decide on a large-sized purchase: a handmade carpet and unreal beauty.
- How should we consider the ancient frescoes preserved on the walls of temples dug in the rocks - the densest concentration on the territory called the open-air museum with an entrance fee
- Visit the underground city, consisting of a ramified network of passageways and rooms, to see how the early Christians lived and hid here from the Arabs a few centuries ago.
- Closer to the evening, find the most filled with the visitors and try a local "specialty": baked in a baked clay pot meat with vegetables - Testi Kebabi.
- Stay overnight in one of the small hotels, the rooms of which are arranged directly in caves, but are nevertheless equipped with all the benefits of civilization.
- To go for a couple of hours to the neighboring Avanos - the town of potters, to take a look at ceramic products made by hand.
- In the afternoon, hurry to Uchisar, go up to the fortress on the mountain and admire how the setting sun colors the surrounding rocks in a variety of shades.
Entertainment, Excursions and Attractions in Cappadocia
Modern Cappadocia is a major tourist center, there are more than one million foreign visitors every year, mainly from Western Europe, India, China, Japan and America..For tourists in Cappadocia, hotels of different levels are built - from elite and even unique to the most simple ones .There are various entertainment services - skiing tracks, ethnic holidays, balloon flights .The unique nature and authentic treasures of Christian history and culture, here, unfortunately, remain unknown to most Russians .
For a person who first came to Cappadocia, acquaintance usually begins with a visit to the capital of the Kayseri region (Caesarea). It is a large industrial city and administrative center with a population of more than a million people, with a multi-storey building. There are archaeological and ethnographic museums with interesting collections, fragments of an ancient fortress preserved.
At the end of the 3rd century, Christians began actively exploring the area between the three largest cities of Cappadocia - Nissa, Nasianzom and Caesarea .They used underground shelters, according to historians, excavated, as early as the Hittite period .It was the Christians who expanded and deepened these cave structures, creating in some places real underground cities, whose population was, according to modern estimates, up to 10 thousand people..The most famous of them, located near the village of Derinkuyu, goes into the earth 85 meters .In multi-storey labyrinths there were living quarters, storages, stables, workshops, and, of course, temples .Ancient underground cities, currently open to visit .They shake their scales and perfectly perfected life-support system .There are still operating ventilation shafts of that time, and tunnels and halls have a functional architecture of .No less interesting is the underground city under the village of Kaymakly, where archaeologists have so far excavated only five floors .There is a suggestion that the underground cities were used by Christians as a refuge first from the persecutions of the Roman emperors, then from nomadic Arabs who often raided these lands at $ 8 per $ ., and then from the Seljuk Turks .
Göreme and Ihlara are the most famous and large temple Christian complexes of Byzantine time. Temples of this period are also found in the villages of Giselleurt, Ortahisar, Gul'shohir, Mustafapasha, the valleys of Zelva, Soganli, Pashbagh and many other places in Cappadocia.
Pilgrimage tours to Cappadocia
To the Orthodox heart this land is already dear because it was the apostolic preaching of St. Paul here. But Cappadocia itself, where the Christian community appeared quite early, showed the whole host of saints to the world. In the church calendar there are more than fifty names of saints, martyrs, saints and righteous ones.
Cappadocia - the birthplace of the martyr Longinus Sotnik, the natives of this ancient land were the saints Basil the Great, archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia, his younger brother Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, as well as Gregory the Theologian, Patriarch of Constantinople. These Fathers of the Church, who made a huge contribution to the formation of the Orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity, as well as Christian theology in general, went down in history with the name of "great Cappadocians."
The desire for a solitary life among believers, the constant sense of danger and the willingness to accept death for Christ, undoubtedly influenced the widespread spread of monasticism in Cappadocia .To get acquainted with where they performed their spiritual feat, the inhabitants of the monasteries in Cappadocia are best, having visited the Goreme valley .Here is an open-air museum, on the territory of which there are more than twenty temples carved in the rocks and several Byzantine monasteries .Their main value is frescoes dating from the 9th-13th centuries .
At the beginning of 16 in .Cappadocia became part of the Ottoman Empire, whose sultans professed Islam .In these conditions Orthodox Christians experienced hard times .The more amazing is the feat that shone in the first third of the 18th century in Cappadocia of the holy righteous John of Russia - our compatriot .His name is still revered not only by Christians, but also by Muslims .Part of the relics of the righteous John of Rus from 1881 .is located in the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos .The other part in 1924 .was secretly exported from Turkey by Greek refugees and is on the island of Evia .Time spared the ancient Orthodox church in Urgup, whose walls remember the Russian ascetic, as well as the house of the master of the righteous John .
After the exodus of the Greek communities in the 20-30's. In the 20th century, together with the priests, there was virtually no one to perform divine services in Cappadocia. Over the past eight decades, many ancient temples and monasteries have become desolate, decrepit and collapsing. The largest monastic complexes of the Turkish government declared a national cultural heritage, they were transformed into museums and taken under protection. However, some of the monuments of Christian architecture are in an abandoned state.
There are currently no permanent Orthodox churches in Cappadocia. Church life comes to life only once a year, in the spring, when its traditional annual pilgrimage by the Patriarch of Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew, performing service in some ancient temples, takes place here. Sometimes on great holidays, with the blessing of Patriarch Bartholomew, the Greek pilgrims and tourists with priests come to the cathedral churches that are in Cappadocian towns, and they serve in them.
Photos of Cappadocia (26)