Tony Young: These Houses Rock

Dec 19, 2012

These Houses Rock

Some of the most incredibly fascinating things we saw in Turkey were the underground cities of Cappadocia. Upon arrival in Cappadocia we saw what are known as "fairy castles". These are stone , actually lava rock, monoliths created by natural forces shaping the stone. These columns can be a few feet high to over one hundred feet tall. This is the land of few trees, and mountains jut from the lava rock plain reaching for the cerealean sky. Dwellings have been carved into these stone mountains which were created by an eruption of Mount Erciyes. It is an uphill walk from the parking area to the entrance of this UNESCO World Heritage Site. The people in this barren land found that they could easily carve a dwelling place in the soft rock. These man-made caves number in the thousands, and many are connected vertically and horizontally via shafts. Early Christians in the third century found refuge in these caves. Therefore, several of the caves are churches or places for Christian worship. One of the most notable is the church of Saint Barbara, the first woman martyred for her faith. The interior of the cave is small with religious symbols on the walls, most notably the sign of the fish and the cross. A baptistery is also carved from the stone. These structures are very crude. There are no square corners or indications of exacting craftsmanship. These are purely utilitarian structures. As you return to the parking lot you will notice another church entrance. After passing the security guard you walk on a slightly elevated wooden pathway. This church is cruciform. The art on the wall is Byzantine and beautifully restored. All cave dwellings are not a part of the World Heritage Site. Private citizens live in the caves as well as conventional housing. There is also a hotel carved from stone with rooms renting for rates in excess of $1,000 per night. We did not stay in that hotel. However, the next day we would visit a modern family living in a cave house.

The visit to the underground city was fascinating. The entrance was a portal in a low hill of lava rock. We entered the cool darkness after walking about twenty feet down to the entrance. The walls were rough carved stone just like we had seen in the churches. There were passages off the the main corridor which led to a large room. The walls and ceiling are curved, which reminded me of some of Gaudi's architecture. Our guide showed us a cistern which caught water from the outside and the huge stone which was rolled into place for security, effectively closing off the city from the outside world. There were twelve more floors beneath us. At one time 20,000 people had lived here with all their livestock. There were olive presses, stables, storage rooms, chapels, and of course living areas. Smoke from the fires were dissipated through hundreds of small vents to the surface revealing no evidence of life underground. I held Claudette's hand as we walked through the dimly lit passageways.

"Something about this is familiar," I said to her.

"What? You've never been to Turkey before. The only tunnel like this we've ever been in was in Chattanooga, and you banged your head on the overhead there," she said with a smile.

"Oh, I know what it was. I saw this show on the History Channel about it."

"What did it say?"

"They thought it was built in the 7th or 8th century B.C. The experts thought these underground cities were built for folks to hide in, and some thought that they may have been built with the help of aliens, I replied"

"Yeah, right!" said she in disbelief.

"I don't know about aliens, but I believe that the third century Christians could have used them to escape persecution. Remember, the Romans would douse them with oil, light 'em up and use 'em for torches in their gardens."

"I guess that would be incentive enough to hide," she said.

We continued our walk through this subterranean metropolis before emerging into the cool air of a September afternoon. There were local women selling dolls in native costume. These small dolls, some of which were about ten inches tall and some taller, were only about three or four Turkish lira each. We bought some for the little girls next door. These women were the stereotypical peasant women dressed in baggy pants with kerchiefs covering their heads. I'm sure they were much younger than they appeared. They appeared, as we would say in the southern vernacular, "Rode hard and put away wet!"

Evening was rapidly approaching as we went to our hotel nearby. We wanted to retire early because we had a 4:30 wake-up call to go for our hot-air balloon ride. But, before I drifted off I remembered. Inside the passageways in the underground city was like walking inside the lava tubes in volcanic areas of Hawaii.