Inside the secret subterranean cities of ancient Cappadocia

Press, 28 December 1985, Page 13

Inside the secret subterranean cities of ancient Cappadocia

By

SANDRA ARNOLD

After crossing a bleak brown desert along the white shores of the salt lake of Tuz Golu, to the southeast of Ankara, a weird vista of bizarre beauty suddenly rises out of the Anatolian plateau. A vast moonscape of towering obelisks, immense cones, and giant toadstools in shades of rose, amber, and slate.

A closer look reveals steps carved into some of the shapes; and where the outer layer of rock has collapsed, an intricate network of concealed passages and stairways is exposed. This is the Valley of Goreme, in ancient Cappadocia. And it is one of the geological and archeological wonders of the world.

The boundaries of Cappadocia are defined by three towns, Nevsehir (Nyssa of old), Nigde, and Kayseri (Caesareia). The whole region of 5000 square kilometres is honey-combed with cave churches, rock tombs, and secret suberranean cities, many of them still undiscovered.

After the first intake of breath, the group I was with besieged the guide with questions. How did such a strange landscape come into being? Who carved out the rocks and why?

Three major volcanoes spewed lava and ash over the area for thousands of years. Earthquakes cracked the lava, and wind and rain lashed the subsoil. Centuries of erosion resulted in the “Fairy Chimneys,” as they are known locally.

Early Christians, fleeing from the persecutions of the Romans in the first century, sought refuge in remote areas. Some settled in Cappadocia. They found the soft volcanic rock easy to carve into shelters and churches, and these

they decorated with religious symbols. Goreme contains the finest remaining examples of early Christian churches in all Anatolia. Some are grouped together or stand alone on high sheer cliffs. Most seem inaccessible from the outside, but it is possible to scale them through a system of secret tunnels within.

It is worth keeping in mind, though, that the sanctuaries were specifically designed to trap intruders. Light and shadow create clever optical illusions, and galleries which seem to end in blank walls have hidden shafts.

During the Hittite occupation of Asia Minor in 2000 BC, some tribes settled in the Nevsehir area on the edge of Goreme and called the town Nyssa. Following the Hittites came the Phrygians and later the Persians. Persian rule continued until the conquest of Alexander the Great. With the rise of Rome, Cappadocia became a province of the Roman Empire, annexed by Emperor Tiberius in 17AD who renamed the capital city Caesareia. Each wave of conquerors left their stamp on the area.

When Emperor Constantine put an end to the persecutions, the Church-became properly organised and for the first time Christians were able to worship in the open. However, they were suppressed again during the reign of Emperor Julian II who wanted to restore the ancient gods. After the official division of the Empire, Cappadocia became a province of the Eastern Roman Empire under Byzantine rule from Constantinople.

In the fourth and fifth centuries the Empire gradually went into decline and Cappadocia suffered again, this time from constant Arab raids. More Christian com munities fled from Caesareia to

seek shelter in the hills and valleys. In the eighth century the disputes over icons developed, resulting in a ban on frescoes depicting religious scenes. The Christian communities were divided on this issue. Nyssa supported iconclasm so those who wished to continue the practice were forced into hiding. The ban was finally lifted by Empress Theodora in 842 after

which there was a tremendous burgeoning of Byzantine art. Most of the murals seen today in the rock churches of Cappadocia were painted during this upsurge between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. They constitute the largest collection of Byzantine paintings anywhere. Most of the murals still retain their vivid colours but nearly all are badly damaged. Perhaps they

and the ancient churches will be lost to future generations. The guide showing me around was anxious to point out that Islam had a history of tolerance towards other religions and, until 1924, Greek Christian communities were still living in some of the caves. The blame for the damage, he said, was largely attributed to uneducated villagers of the past who, for superstitious reasons, gouged out

the eyes of the saints and lit fires to blacken some of the frescoes.

On the edge of Goreme lies a little village called Derinkuyu. It is typical of most Turkish villages with its simple houses, peasants in baggy floral pants and headscarves driving donkeys, goats, and waterbuffalo along the dirt roads. Then, in 1963, Derinkuyu yielded a wonderful archeological discovery. A secret underground city was

found and shortly afterwards, another identical one in nearby Kaymakli. The villagers say they have always known of the existence of these cities and they tell stories of old men who claim to have walked from one to the other through subterranean tunnels. The previous isolation of the Anatolian villages probably accounts for the fact that knowledge of the buried cities was not widespread. In Derinkuyu I descended the concrete steps which led to the entrance of the city. A claustrophobic labyrinth of corridors branched off in every direction. Not a place to venture without a guide. Twelve storeys have so far been cleared and made safe, though it is estimated that there are at least eight more and about the same at Kaymakli. Each city covers an area of four kilometres and they were capable of sheltering 20,000 people for up to a year if necessary. They belong to a network of over 400 such settlements in the area which form a circle around Derinkuyu, all of which were at one time connected by long tunnels. The city I visited was subdivided into units, every one of which could be sealed off by huge round boulders like millstones. Some of these are still to be seen. They were so perfectly balanced that they could be rolled from the inside by only two people but could not be moved at all from the outside. ■. The building = of the city must have been excruciatingly slow as just one person at a time, kneeling or lying, and using only the most 'basic tools, could chisel away at the rock. Even the lighting of the tunnels would have been difficult as there was neither enough room nor air for torches. In each unit are living rooms with niches for oil candles, bedrooms, and huge food storage areas. There are places for press- '■ ing grapes, channels for collecting the juice, and enormous vats for wine making. <

The walls between the rooms are chiselled away to a thickness of about five centimetres. A thicker layer of rock was left in some of the rooms, parts of it hollowed out for use as wash basins and drainage channels. Access to each level is gained by creeping doubled up through narrow twisting channels. There is no room for more than one person at a time and it is impossible to turn around. Enemies who had succeeded in penetrating that far would have been helpless. Once inside the maze, they would have been trapped and could then be stabbed at leisure through slits in the walls and ceilings. The buried cities had escape routes through long tunnels which led into hidden ravines and precipitous mountains. There is no evidence that any of them were ever captured. Combat inside the tunnels would have been impossible and sieges would be useless as the cities were self-supporting with ample food supplies and water reserves. It is not known who originally built these cities. Obviously they have been used by many different people for different reasons oyer the centuries. Although they were occupied by Christian refugees who enlarged and adapted them to their own needs, relics found during the excavations at Derinkuyu indicate that the city existed in the era of the Hittites. There is a section which was used by the Christians as a Church but its layout suggests that it may have been used by Hittite leaders as an assembly hall. Next to it is a large room, thought to have been a ’ prison compound, the roof of which is supported by three huge pillars with chain holds. These were evidently pillars of punishment and pre-date the Christian era. Why would a race of people, some time in the second millenium, ' need to build an extensive network of secret subterranean cities? Their identity and purpose remain an enigma.