Rock-cut architecture of Cappadocia

Rock-cut architecture in Cappadocia in Central Turkey includes living and work spaces as well as sacred buildings like churches and monasteries, that were carved out of the soft tuff landscape. Mount Erciyes south of Kayseri, Mount Hasan southeast of Aksaray, Mount Melendiz in Niğde, and some smaller volcanoes covered the region of Cappadocia with a layer of tuff stone over the course of a twenty million year period ending in prehistoric times, after which erosion created the well-known rock formations of the region. The process is a special form of the rill erosion which affects much of Turkey, in which the solidity of the volcanic tuff and ignimbrite creates particularly deep and steep-sided streams, which create tower-like shapes were they meet at right angles. Since this soft stone is comparatively easy to work, people were probably carving it into dugouts by the early Bronze Age. In the course of time, this progressed to living complexes, monasteries, and whole underground cities. Since 1985, the 'rock sites of Cappadocia' have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

History

Prehistory and antiquity From traces of settlement it is known that the region of Cappadocia was inhabited in prehistoric times. Whether rock-cuttings had already been made at that time is not clear. It is probable that in the Bronze Age at the latest, when the region was in the middle of the Hittite empire, the first passageways and rooms had been cut into the rock, as well as reservoirs and possibly even refuges in the cliffs. In Derinkuyu underground city, only one tool of Hittite origin has been found and it might have been brought there at a later date. The earliest attestation of these structures is in Xenophon's Anabasis, which mentions people in Anatolia who had built their houses underground.

Their houses were underground, with a mouth like that of a well, but below they spread out widely. Entrance ways were dug for the herd animals, but the people descended by ladder. In the houses there were goats, sheep, cattle, birds, and their children. Inside, all the animals were kept fed on a diet of fodder.

Christian settlement

The initial Christian settlement of the region came in the first centuries AD, starting with hermits who retreated into the seclusion of the tough landscape from the Christian community at Caesarea. They either settled in caves that already existed or dug their own residences in the cliffs. Since they were seeking solitude rather than protection from enemies, they largely made their homes above ground level. After the Christian church was re-organised under the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus) in the fourth century AD, ever larger groups of Christians followed them over the next few centuries, settling in Cappadocia and building cloistered communities, which meant that they needed ever more and ever larger residential and religious spaces. Meanwhile, in the fourth century, the Isaurians invaded, in the fifth century the Huns, and finally in the sixth century the Sassanid Persians; in 605 the city of Caesarea was conquered during the Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628. These incursions sparked the intensive construction of rock-cut buildings below and above ground, including whole cities. The design of these structures was principally shaped by security and defensive concerns. From 642, the Arabs began to invade the region and these concerns grew increasingly significant, with the result that Christian communities continued to live in the region for three centuries, secure from raids. Eventually, the Byzantines regained control over Cappadocia and under their rule Christianity and Christian architecture in Cappadocia entered a golden age. By the eleventh century, roughly three thousand churches had been carved in the rocks.

In the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arslan defeated the Byzantine Emperor Romanos IV, marking the end of Byzantine rule in Anatolia and the beginning of Turkish pre-eminence in the region. Despite the religious tolerance of the Seljuks, this marked the beginning of the decline of Christianity in Cappadocia and the long decline of church architecture. As a result of the gradual emigration of the Christian inhabitants, the existing cloisters were slowly taken over by Turkish farmers, who renovated them according to their own needs. Since camouflage and defence were no longer necessary, facades and houses were built in front of entranceways that had formerly been hidden and inconspicuous. The rock-cut houses continued to be used by the Turkish inhabitants in the twentieth century – partially because of the continuously pleasant temperatures under the rock. In 1832, the population had to make use of the underground cities for safety against Egyptian armies during the First Egyptian-Ottoman War. The last remaining Christians left the area in 1923 as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey. The final Turkish inhabitants moved out of the cave settlement at Zelve in the 1950s after earthquakes had done significant damage and made the structures increasingly dangerous. Even today, some caves in Uçhisar, Ortahisar, and the Soğanlı valley are still used, at least during the hot summer months, usually with a house attached to them.

Underground cities

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