Cappadocia is a region in Central Anatolia, Turkey, with an area of about 100 square kilometeres. What does the name Cappadocia mean? Its name is supposedly derived from the Hittite word Katpatuka, meaning the land of beautiful horses. But I’d like to mention that its just of the theories. Arguably, the most romantic one, and it does have foundation in literature where it says that the region which is now Cappadocia used to pay its dues in horses, because they were so beautiful. But then there is a theory that the word Cappadocia stems from the name of Kappadoks, who was the son of the Assyrian king Ninias.

The first thing that comes to mind when one thinks about Cappadocia is definitely its iconic landscape.

Erosion shaped the incredible landscape of Cappadocia. Ancient volcanic eruptions covered this region with thick ash, which turned into a soft rock, called tuff, 50-60 meters thick. Wind and water worked on this plateau, leaving only its harder elements untouched to form a sci-fi landscape of cones, pillars, mushrooms, and chimneys. Some of them are more than 40 meters tall. For example, the pillars of the Love Valley.

But human hands also performed their fair bit of work here. This rocky wonderland is honeycombed with a network of caves. Houses, churches, monasteries, stables, and storehouses were all dug into the soft stone. In fact, tunnel complexes formed real towns with as many as eight floors hidden underground.

The fairy chimneys are the most prominent landscape feature of Cappadocia. How are fairy chimneys formed? Their lower parts are made of soft tuff while their upper parts are made of hard basalt. The lower part becomes thinner and thinner with time and erosion, but the upper part stays the same. That’s how they get their unusual shapes. This is a very handy image that shows the different stages that fairy chimneys go through.

Now, when did humans started populating Cappadocia? What were the early settlements in Cappadocia like? Neolithic pottery and tools found in Cappadocia show the early human presence in the region.

Historically, people settled close to water sources. In Cappadocia, this water source is Kizilirmak, the Red River. (Old name – Halys). It was easy for the people here to build homes in tuff rocks because they could be hollowed out without the use of metal tools, but simply with sharp stones. Also, the high rocks on the plateau were suitable for protection against predators or enemies. However, you cannot find any untouched evidence of the early settlements because they were constantly inhabited and rebuilt by the next generations. So it is very difficult for the scientists to provide any chronology for Cappadocian settlements.

TRADE

Throughout its history, Cappadocia hosted trade colonies and built commercial bridges between countries. It was one of the important junctions of the Silk Road. You can still see old kervansarays in Cappadocia. Kervansaray is a place, where travellers could stay to have rest, eat, visit hammam, or see a doctor.

In early Bronze Age (3200 – 1950 BC) Assyrian traders called the region in arc of the Red River “The country of Hatti”. The Assyrians formed a large and effective trade network here. And the centre of this network was Kanesh (today’s Kültepe) near Kayseri. Excavations at Kültepe found tens of thousands of clay tablets from Kanesh. They are among the oldest written documents discovered in Turkey.

RULERS

The Hittites settled in Cappadocia from 1800 BC to 1200 BC, after which smaller kingdoms held power. Then came the Persians, followed by the Romans, who established the capital of Caesarea (today’s Kayseri). After three centuries of Roman rule over Cappadocia the region was inherited by the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium.

The Byzantine Empire lost Cappadocia forever when it came under the control of the Seljuq Turks when they defeated the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

CHRISTIANITY

During the Roman and Byzantine periods, Cappadocia became a religious refuge during the early days of Christianity. By the fourth century Christians running from Roman persecution arrived to Cappadocia and established monasteries here. Christianity flourished here from the 4th to the 11th century. The monks excavated big homes and monasteries and created Byzantine frescoed paintings in cave chapels which are preserved to this day.

In the 4th century three Cappadocian fathers — Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus — made important contributions to Christian thought in their writings, rejecting Arianism and elaborating on the doctrine of the Trinity.

The region became even more important when Emperor Leon III (the third) banned icons in 726 AD. The iconoclasm period lasted for more than a hundred years. And although some Cappadocian churches were influenced by Iconoclasm, pro-icon people easily continued worshipping here.

Later, under Seljuk and Ottoman rule, Christians were treated with tolerance.

ENEMY ATTACKS AND UNDERGROUND CITIES

Cappadocia’s position on the eastern side of the Byzantine Empire left it open to attack. Attacks by tribal groups in the 5th century spurred the construction of heavier fortifications in the area. Arab attacks on Cappadocia started in the 7th century and continued for 300 years. During these periods of instability, large complexes of man-made caves and tunnels were built to be used as hiding places/shelters. However, establishing precise dates for their construction is difficult.