Turkey - underground cities in Cappadocia

24 July 2021

Great Journey 🏍 Day 321
Heute entdecken wir Kappadokien ausserhalb von Göreme. Wir besuchen die unterirdische Stadt. Merken aber, als wir nachfragen, dass es nicht «die» unterirdische Stadt gibt, sondern derer 116!

We don't decide, we let them decide. Our guide, who picks us up in the morning, knows which of the underground cities would be good to explore. He tells us that at first only the cattle were protected from the bad guys. Later, they simply dug further for "living space" and they could hide themselves, not just the animals, from the enemies.

Until about the 7th century, these underground cities were not used for permanent habitation, but for short-term hiding. Food and livestock were stored or kept there all year round, and the temperatures are constantly around 16° Celsius. (For us, it's also nice to have an hour without almost 40 degrees!)

The corridors become narrower, deeper and steeper as we advance. Many a tourist has to turn back here, too narrow or too claustrophobic. Or their knees don't cooperate so well. Here we see that these stupid squat exercises are good for something. By now we are waddling in the duck gait.

We learn so much about the life of the people here, who wanted to protect themselves from whom, and that you can dig out a room, about 4 by 4 metres, with 2 men and two picks within a month. Yes, even that sometimes you suddenly find yourself in your neighbour's living room, there were no statics, no building plan or cave tomb training for that. There was even a chapel down there, with an altar and everything.

At the end of the tour, our guide mentioned that everything he had told us had never been proven. That it was all made up somehow, along the lines of: "That's how it must have been". Well, that suits us perfectly.

Viewed from the outside/above, there was not much to see, a few trees, a bit of stones. Nothing that could indicate life of about 2,000 people.

Simply a very impressive region, this Cappadocia.

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