We arrived at Cappadocia in late night. Therefore, we could not see anything but a valley with light everywhere, and some faraway hills barely seen. The guide told us that we were passing the most beautiful place in Turkey – in his own opinion, of course, whereas we were sitting almost asleep. Mist was predicted for the next morning, and unfortunately, we could not arrange a balloon flight. It would be senseless for nothing would be visible. Usually, the balloons filled with tourists start hovering over the valley at about 6 AM to catch the sunrise.
As it always happens, the weathercast had been wrong.
Next morning, sun shone above Cappadocia, and we stood there stoned by the beauty of that heavenly place. There are two Cappadocia’s, in Turkey. One is the temple complex consisting of monasteries and churches directly cut off the rocks. The other is the underground town built by the locals to escape from Arabs. Early in the morning, we visited the former. The first sounds we could produce were not verbal at all. They all were "Ah!"s, and "Oh!"s...
Imagine a huge valley with large stone hills within it. All those hills are pierced by holes and tunnels like bees’ cells. In this case, for hundreds of years people had played bees’ roles and had dug all those tunnels. Early Christians started building their stone churches, Byzantines went on, whereas Turks decided to leave them untouched.
Everything – churches with ideally round columns, houses, benches, tables, chairs – is made of stone here. Church walls, in turn, are covered with such expressive frescoes that one can live for years here just enjoying staring at them.
Cappadocia frescoes are as significant for human culture as the petroglyphic pictures in Amiens. However, one must see them to understand what I mean...
Here are the earliest churches – 5-6th centuries AD. Most often, St. George fighting with the serpent is portrayed.
"Metaphorically," scientists say, "it symbolizes the victory of Christianity over paganism."
Jesus Pantocrator is painted on the upper domes. Angels and saints are on smaller ones. In spite of their 1.500-year old age, the paints are still looking fresh and brand new. Scientists still can not conjecture how Byzantines managed to do it. In fact, all these paintings are not frescoes. Frescoes must be painted on wet stucco whereas Cappadocia portraits had been painted directly on walls. It is noteworthy that due to the unique ventilation system it is never too hot or too cold inside these churches. No heating system is required at all...
Showing the dark rooms with long stone tables, guides say, "Here Christians had their lunches and dinners resembling to the Last Supper..." Early Christians believed that Apocalypse would be soon. Sitting by those crude stone tables, enjoying their crude food they waited for Christ’s soon re-apparition...
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Christ did not appear in Cappadocia. Instead, the iconoclasts came. The first ravage of churches started...
Dark ages came to Byzantium in early 8th century. People were getting pooper, noblemen were getting richer. Revolutionary movements started to appear. Since economical classes were not aware of segregation concept, those times, rage acquired religious and apocalyptical character. Islam was getting stronger and stronger, at the same time. Muslims do not admit icons and people visualization as a whole... Eventually, people got irritated by abundance of monasteries and monks, which were of no use for anyone but God. People started fighting against icons and monasteries. Government that was in was with Arabs needed more soldiers and workers, so, it supported the iconoclasts. Gloomy times began for the monks...
"Saints’ portraits are chopped with axes on streets," a contemporary wrote, "Thousands of monks are pursued. Icons cry..."
Icons cried in Cappadocia as well. There is a painting on a church wall where a cross covered with tears is visualized. An unknown monk painted it to show that God cried seeing how government is fighting with religion. In addition, here is a schematic painting of a grasshopper standing on its feet. It should symbolize that sooner or later even the pagans will acquire their belief in God, similarly to a grasshopper that eventually stands on its feet.
On one hand, iconoclasts inflicted a significant damage to Cappadocia churches; on the other hand, it helped them. Many of the icons were covered with paint but due to those events here appeared a few unique Christian churches decorated with only ornaments and crosses. No portraits, no icons, no paintings! Somewhat resembling to mosques, if not for the crosses of course. Needless to say, these churches are so unique that UNESCO decided to take the whole Cappadocia under its patronage. However, one will not think of all these while walking in Cappadocia rocks. What will he think of, then?
Going up the stairs to a church built right on the mountain peak, one will indispensably put oneself into the shoes of those who managed to build the temples here. Those who used to stand on a platform over a hundred-metre-deep abyss, and looked to the East waiting for Christ to come... Those who listening to echo heard Apocalyptic trumpets playing... Those who lived and died in simplicity...
Sitting on a stone bench where people who died fifteen hundreds years ago used to sit, one will think of many things...
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Another peculiarity of Cappadocian frescoes is that the people visualized on them have no faces. It had not been so since the beginning. The frescoes were desecrated by Ottomans much later. Turks are generally religiously tolerant but they never put up with people’s portraits. Therefore the first thing a Muslim soldier did when he came here – he pierced portrait’s eyes...
...And went on, with his conscience calmed.
Therefore, rarely will you find an angel’s, a saint’s or Christ’s face painted, in Cappadocia. It was decided not to restore the frescoes, because pierced eyes also belong to history.
XXX
Iconoclasts departed, and Arabs came. Cruel and merciless nomads, these did not resemble to Turks who came here to settle. Arabs did not care about the territory. They simply used to come twice a year – in autumn and in spring – to take away crop, and animals, respectively. The locals were not killed once they stood still yet the consequences still were horrible. In a couple of years, Cappadocia population halved! If it had gone so a little more, there would have been nobody left.
"People eat each other in winter," a chronist writes, "anyway, most of them die..."
Tourists usually do not pay much attention to this tragedy. People’s nature is such that they do not quite care about other people, especially if the latter had passed away centuries ago... but to understand what Cappadocia citizens suffered just imagine that you have nothing to feed your child with, while winter is coming soon. Imagine your child coming to you and asking for a loaf of bread or for a cookie. He is so happy. He is smiling, for kids can not control their emotions. And imagine what you will feel if he asks for a cookie, whereas you do not have anything for him... Listening about the Cappadocia tragedy, I imagined all these. I continued to imagine looking at the small pits cut in the tough rock for children who died of hunger... Here are more such tombs than churches and anything else...
To name things precisely, genocide took place in Cappadocia in early Middle Ages. That is to say, intended annihilation of people. Therefore, not only churches, but houses as well are the monuments in this land. We, and probably, no one on Earth can understand the sorrow of Cappadocian mothers...
XXX
Except for God and mountains, there is somebody else who can see how people live in Cappadocia. It is the pigeons. Wonderful Cappadocian pigeons are as famous in Turkey as once local horses were. Even Sultans sent their grooms here to find the best horses. Cappadocian pigeons are beautiful too. In fact, they started settling in Cappadocia rocks because of the people.
To attract birds, Cappadocians used to cut niches in the rocks so that the birds settle their houses there. These resemble to gulls’ dwellings more, but pigeons loved it! With time, their population got so large that new dwellings needed to be made. Curiously, Cappadocians never killed pigeons and never ate them.
They used the birds as fertilizing machines!
Special manure collectors were put under the pigeonries. When full, these collectors were emptied to fertilize the soil, which is not very good here in mountains. Hence, their crop was as good as that in valley.
Now, modern fertilizers are used in Turkey, yet, the pigeons are still abundant. Visiting Cappadocia, you will often see these cute birds hovering above the mountain peaks.
XXX
Arabs were met with strong resistance in Europe, and therefore started to slowly retreat. Yet, they still used to visit Cappadocia. It seemed that the region is about to be completely ravaged but it managed to stay undefeated. Arabs and other nomads who came here for the next time saw abandoned mountains. Nothing – nor human, neither animal was present. At all! Arabs stayed for a couple of days waiting for someone to appear, but all in vain. Superstitious Arabs decided that evil spirits had taken everybody from here, and departed not to irritate them. Then, locals got out of... a mountain.
"The underground passages that form a full-weight town are more than ten km long!" Cappadocian citizens told.
This is not an exaggeration. For years and years did the Cappadocians cut the underground passages in rocks to hide from the vicious intruders. The passages got widened, bed-rooms, dining-rooms, halls, pantries were made. As a result, a nine-floor city emerged in a mountain. Just imagine it! Nine 2 metre-high floors! It is your actual modern nine-floor building inside a mountain. Moreover, it extends to many kilometres sidewise...
... Nowadays, tourists and locals wander along these passages. You can pass a few floors down, via the underground stables where horses were hidden from Arabs, or pass the whole underway and get out of the ground near a local village. Only four upper floors are open for tourists. The other five are available only to archaeologists. A newcomer can easily get lost there, for there are no signs and lights on the lower floors.
Some passages connecting the underground town rooms are so narrow that one can go through them only half-bowed. It was designed so that the intruders can not attack the town with strong forces. Arabs with time learned that the Cappadocians had just hidden themselves in a rock, and decided to capture the new settlement. Here, they failed. Due to narrowness of the passages, only one soldier could pass from one room to another at a time. Therefore, it was very easy for the defenders to stop any attack. Even if the attacking forces were too strong, it was always an alternative just to close a passage with a huge rock. The rocks mentioned had been prepared beforehand. Some of these are still standing above the passages. Maybe, they were too heavy to move them?
"Come to the rock from the behind and look at the club under it. Now, remember what Archimedes said..." locals explained.
Ancient Cappadocians could be unaware of Archimedes’ words about turning the world up side down, but the principle was exploited by them perfectly. Hence, even a kid could close any passage by moving a rock into it.
People used to live for years without ever getting out in this underground town. Even now, their huge jugs where food had been stored are standing in room nooks. The room where Cappadocians made wine is well-preserved. That Cappadocian underground wine had a unique taste, famous throughout the whole Mediterranean region.
There had been people who used to go out regularly no matter what weather was. These were the guards. When they lit bonfires on mountain peaks, the peasants working on fields were immediately warned about Arabs approaching. People then quickly went in to the rock having taken all the food and animals with them. Bit by bit, Arabs understood that they had no chances to succeed in capturing the underground town of Cappadocia and eventually they gave up their attempts. Cappadocians slowly abandoned the underground settlement. Soil filled in its passages till archaeologists cleaned them of it.
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