2009 Holy Land Tour - Turkey
Part 2 - Cappadocia
Click on Photos and Charts for a larger version
Last week, I began telling you about our recent trip to the nation of Turkey. I shared with you how much of the Bible, especially the New Testament, involves places that are located in modern-day Turkey. In fact, there are 33 places named in the Bible that are located in this country. In addition to the places, many civilizations or tribal groups (i.e. Hittites), along with names of people who lived in these provinces.
Half the Book of Acts is a narrative of events taking place in Turkey. Chapters 13 through 27 take place there, except for the church council mention in Acts 15, which took place in Jerusalem. All of the Seven Churches in Revelation 2 & 3 are located in Turkey. The first place where the followers of Jesus were called “Christians” was in Syrian Antioch, which today is in Modern Turkey.
Cappadocia
We boarded Turkish Airlines from Istanbul to Cappadocia. The city we flew into was Kayseri. As we walked out of the Terminal to board our bus, we got our first sight of Mt. Erciyes. It rises 12,848 feet, and is Turkey’s third highest. Mount Ararat is the highest at 16,854 feet.
Cappadocia is an extensive inland district in eastern Asia Minor. The Cappadocian region has an altitude that ranges from 3,000 to 5,000 feet. In many ways, this area is unlike any other in the world, both in is above ground landscapes and its many underground cities. The unique pointed landscape are sometimes called “Fairy Chimneys.”
On the left is a map of the Cappadocian area where we spent most of our time there. The city of Kayseri, where we landed is off the map slightly to the right. Each of the sites mentioned below are on the map.
Gorë
When we arrived in Cappadocia, it was still mid-morning, so we visited several places prior to going to our hotel. The first place our guide took us was to the abandoned city of Göre. What you see here is the empty façades of cave dwellings. The Turkish government asked people living in these cave homes to move to a new city, because there was no access to utilities like water and electricity. I have been told that some of these places are being utilized for dwellings once again as they are modernized with water and electricity. Here you see Nola with one of the local girls in Gorë.
Kaymakli Underground City
We travel further south, and twenty minutes later we are at the entrance to one of the many underground cities in Cappadocia. This one is Kaymakli City, and is built into a hill. Here are a couple of depictions of underground cities. The brown picture is of Kaymakli, and is built into a large hill. Near every tourist area, you will find many sellers of their products. The photo second from right is one such marketplace.
Kaymakli lies at an altitude of just under 5,000 feet. The name Kaymakli means, “cream made of milk.” The underground city was discovered and opened to tourists in 1964. The inhabitants of the region still use the most convenient places in the tunnels as cellars, storage areas and stables, which they access through their courtyards.
In Kaymakli, there are 8 levels and over 100 tunnels, and from the first to the eighth level is a height of about 200 feet. Visitors are allowed only in 4 levels. As you walk through the tunnels you will see red arrows and blue arrows. Red arrows show the way in and blue arrows shows the way out. Without such, it is definitely possible to get lost underground.
The first photo is just inside the entrance to Kaymakli underground city. The next picture show a small part of the labyrinth of passageways. And Dr. Braddy is peeking through a side opening in one of the rooms.
It is certain that Kaymakli is one of the largest underground settlements in the region. The number of the storage rooms in such a small area supports the idea that a great number of people resided here. Archeologists think that this can be up to 5000 people.
During the Christian era, these underground cities became important places of refuge for thousands of Christians. During the 2nd and 3rd centuries, they could escape persecution by Roman soldiers by taking refuge in the underground cities. Churches were also created in these cities when the Christians inhabited them.
As can be seen in the photo to the left, at strategic places throughout the city they placed circular stones that could be rolled across the opening if it was necessary to stop intruders. And they could be opened only from the inside.
Some of these cities were very large, like the city of Derinkuyu, which had as many as 10,000 residents, having a minimum of 12 layers, going underground nearly 300 feet. In the larger cities, there would be 2 or 3 or more churches.
Let me show you a few more photo taken in Kaymakli. At far right is one of Felix and Lily Mendoza. The next photo shows a larger room with a higher ceiling. Next is a similar room, but I want you to look at the ceiling. It is thought this area was probably the kitchen, with the smoke causing the blackened ceiling. The photo at the left in this row of photos is Dr. Dwaine Braddy, one of the hosts of this Holy Land Trip.
The photo on the left finds us near Kaymakli. It shows some of the unique land formations (Fairy Chimneys) of Cappadocia that have developed over millennia. It was time for lunch – and the next photo is Mike and Cathy Maas. The third photo is most of the rest of our group eating lunch.
Zelve Valley
The next place we visited is on the map above. It is called Zelve Valley. In the photo at far right you see most of our group. I show you this picture because of something we saw all across Cappadocia. In the middle of the picture you see some of the stand-alone spires (fairy chimneys). Right behind them, still part of the mountain, you see new ones begin formed. Given time, they will also be stand-alone spires.
Our guide Seyhun, showed us a few places in Zelve Valley and then we were turned loose to explore for about half an hour. The room (photo above, 2nd from right) was probably a cave church at one time. Along the trail we saw this large turtle – and Danielle Stott picked it up.
The photos at right is another carved home – and if you look closely, you can still see some of the frescoes, though somewhat faded. In my exploring, I also saw several multilevel cave homes.
We head for our hotel – the Peri Towers Hotel – in Nevşehir. In Turkish, the word “Şehir” means “city.” And Neşehir means “new city.” The ghost town I showed you earlier across from the village of Gorë was the abandoned old city of Nevşehir. Next is a photo of the lobby area of the Peri Towers. Our only way to communicate with home was through the free computer in the lobby and the next photo shows some of the Northwest University students e-mailing. And their professor, Dr. Kari Brodine, is in the the back reading a book.
Göreme Open Air Museum
In the morning we headed for the city of Göreme. Göreme is about the first name one thinks of when Cappadocia is mentioned, since it was the first place that became widely known for its marvelous “fairy chimneys” and other rock formations. The valley in which the city of Göreme lies is at an altitude of approximately 3,400 feet.
Göreme, was earlier called Göremi, which was supposed to mean “you cannot see.” Later it was changed to Korama and then finally into Göreme. People still live in some of the rock houses or use them as storerooms today. The village of Göreme does not only have rock houses, but also rock restaurants and rock hotels which visitors find amazing.
There are over 400 churches in the Cappadocia area. There are at least 10 cave churches in Göreme. The Turkish word for church is KILISE, if it has a masculine name. If the church is named after a female, the word for church changes to KILISESI.
We visited most of the churches in Göreme. I will show you only a few. The first one you see is this 7 or 8 story Kislar Manastiri, and was used only by women. I haven’t misspelled monastery – that is the spelling in Turkish (Manastiri). We did not go inside this building.
When the churches were discovered, they were given names that related to their shapes or some of the frescoes found inside.
This one is the Elmali Kilise – the Apple Church. I show the photo at far right first to make a statement about the tile covering of the outside of this church. This and other churches have been covered on the outside to preserve them. Because of the altitude – about 3,400 feet – it gets cold in the winter. And if rain water would fall into the cracks of the outer shell and then freeze, the expansion would cause more damage to the structure.
Inside some of these church, including this one, you find amazingly preserved frescoes. Frescoes were used to teach a largely illiterate population the stories of the Bible. Most of the depictions are from an Eastern Orthodox view. Their talent at painting is amazing as is the fact that their bright colors have lasted for so many centuries.
In the middle of our visit to these underground or cave churches, we stopped because there was a lineupof groups waiting for the same place. So someone suggested we take a group picture. The one at far right is the one taken with my camera.
Churches were not the only caves to visit in the Göreme Open Air Museum. Some places required climbing up ladders to get a look inside. The two middle photos are taken by me climbing up first, then taking photos of many in our group. In the next photo (above left), we are listening to our guide tell us about this place. Again notice how the smoke-colored walls and ceiling. Probably another kitchen.
The three photos from the far right are taken inside the Tokali Kilise – The Buckle Church. The frescoes inside this church also were outstanding. Not only the intricate frescoes amazing, but the carving of this church (and others) out of the stone (Tufa) shows their unique craftmenship.
After leaving the Göreme Open Air Museum, we stop for people to browse the many shops (above left). I did buy a set of fancy napkins for my wife, Paula.
Our guide takes us to a carpet factory for a demonstration. And, of course, if you wanted to purchase a carpet of any size and price, they would ship it for you. Some of the carpets were made of silk, but what was interesting to me was the way they extracted their silk.
The process of a silkworm becoming a moth involves weaving a cocoon around itself. In this picture are many such cocoons being soaked in a solution – water, I think. A single strand from the cocoon is fed through a loop, then to a spooling device. Once the process is started for a cocoon, no further monitoring is needed, since the cocoon is spun by the worm from a single strand of silk. From that day, we referred to our bus as our white cocoon.
Avanos
That afternoon, we headed north to the city of Avanos (See map above). This city is located on the Red River – in Turkish, the Kizilirmak River - which flows from east to west. Avanos is known for their pottery, so we visited a pottery factory. The photo at far right is one of their finished products. And the other shows a lady doing the tedious job of hand painting that same ceramic platter. It will go into the fire and come out brightly colored.
