Ducky
02-04-2010, 08:39 AM
Here's another place on earth that made me do a double take.
I've heard of a lot of underground mysterious places and I'm pretty sure I might have heard about this one somewhere in my travels, but it wasn't until I had my bathroom renovated the other day by 3 Turkish fellows, that I was privelaged to be re-aquainted with this subject again.
One of the reno guys was on a smokie break, saw me having one/fartin around on the puter, and wanted to show me a place where he visited. In his words: "It still intrigues me to this day."
Caves, splunking, underground places...oh yeahhhh baby. Gotta luv it!
Often wondered why people would carve out a meager existence (hundreds of feet deep) into pure rock or the equivelant.
I can think of a few reasons. Perhaps, it's more for defense purposes; war ensues, and folks need a better stronghold in hard times.
Natural disasters is another idea. First thing I thought of was, was some kind of 'aerial bombardment'. Now, depending on when these caves were constructed, would the overall general region be subject to a few meteor showers and what not. Also what about 'earthquakes' in the area?
One of the characteristics of Cappadocia is having plenty of underground cities. It's known that there are more than a hundred of underground settlements in the region and many of them are not open for visits. The underground cities, which are guessed to be used since the Bronze Age, used to be a settlement mostly in Byzantine period, doubtless. In this period, increasing invasions forced local residents to build underground cities for protection and religious purposes.
Certainly the most interesting features of the Cappadocia area are the underground cities founded within. Until now even that have been determined about 40 underground cities just six of these have been opened for visit. Nobody can know how many underground cities there are in the Cappadocia area. Some say that there is one for every village and settlement in the region but certainly not all of the sites can be described as cities. Well known underground cities of Cappadocia area are Tatlarin Underground city (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/tatlarin_underground_city.htm) Derinkuyu Underground City (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/derinkuyu_underground_city.htm), Ozkonak Underground City (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/ozkonak_underground_city.htm), Mazi Village Underground City (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/mazi_village_underground_city.htm), Kaymakli Underground City (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/kaymakli_underground_city.htm) and Gaziemir Underground City (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/gaziemir_underground_city.htm)
Read more here] (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/undergroundcities.htm)
Have a looky at the site. There's some wonderful pics :D
I've heard of a lot of underground mysterious places and I'm pretty sure I might have heard about this one somewhere in my travels, but it wasn't until I had my bathroom renovated the other day by 3 Turkish fellows, that I was privelaged to be re-aquainted with this subject again.
One of the reno guys was on a smokie break, saw me having one/fartin around on the puter, and wanted to show me a place where he visited. In his words: "It still intrigues me to this day."
Caves, splunking, underground places...oh yeahhhh baby. Gotta luv it!
Often wondered why people would carve out a meager existence (hundreds of feet deep) into pure rock or the equivelant.
I can think of a few reasons. Perhaps, it's more for defense purposes; war ensues, and folks need a better stronghold in hard times.
Natural disasters is another idea. First thing I thought of was, was some kind of 'aerial bombardment'. Now, depending on when these caves were constructed, would the overall general region be subject to a few meteor showers and what not. Also what about 'earthquakes' in the area?
One of the characteristics of Cappadocia is having plenty of underground cities. It's known that there are more than a hundred of underground settlements in the region and many of them are not open for visits. The underground cities, which are guessed to be used since the Bronze Age, used to be a settlement mostly in Byzantine period, doubtless. In this period, increasing invasions forced local residents to build underground cities for protection and religious purposes.
Certainly the most interesting features of the Cappadocia area are the underground cities founded within. Until now even that have been determined about 40 underground cities just six of these have been opened for visit. Nobody can know how many underground cities there are in the Cappadocia area. Some say that there is one for every village and settlement in the region but certainly not all of the sites can be described as cities. Well known underground cities of Cappadocia area are Tatlarin Underground city (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/tatlarin_underground_city.htm) Derinkuyu Underground City (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/derinkuyu_underground_city.htm), Ozkonak Underground City (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/ozkonak_underground_city.htm), Mazi Village Underground City (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/mazi_village_underground_city.htm), Kaymakli Underground City (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/kaymakli_underground_city.htm) and Gaziemir Underground City (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/gaziemir_underground_city.htm)
Read more here] (http://www.cappadociaturkey.net/undergroundcities.htm)
Have a looky at the site. There's some wonderful pics :D