The Cave Houses of Cappadocia
For the next few weeks I (Christina) will be doing some traveling in Europe (hopefully with no ash cloud delays) and one place I will visit is the Cappadocia region of Turkey. This stark landscape covered with rough mountains is home to several small towns that are actually full of modern day troglodytes living in caves.
The rocks of Cappadocia have eroded over the years into conical structures that the Turkish call “fairy chimneys”. This sedimentary rock was easy for the ancient people of the area to carve out caves for houses, churches and monasteries. People still live in these ancient holes in the ground and have turned some of them into hotels, apartments and shops.
Göreme is probably the most famous town in Cappadocia. It’s popular with hikers, mountain bikers and lovers of history. Göreme became a monastic center between 300-1200 AD and you can still tour some of the monastic caves and underground tunnels. Some people who live in the area have been known to begin working on creating a new room for their homes (by scraping away portions of existing walls) only to discover an ajoining cave that dates back to ancient times.
By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]
6 Responses to “The Cave Houses of Cappadocia”
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Way cool! I love this kind of architecture!
My mind and heart stretch and pull as I gaze in awe.
It is hard to imagine the culture there… Is it comfortable and steadfast if you fit in … or confining and rigid if not.
I am touched by the view. Grateful for your sharing it with me.
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So, so, so cool! “Cities of the Underworld,” from the History Channel, has covered similar homes and building techniques, and much, much more.
i stayed at a hostel in Verona Italy a few times that has a cave house behind the main building and a coutryard.. no one lives in it, they store old furniture in is but it had a really cool spiral stairwell cit into the cave and several rooms at diffrent hights in the rockface.. was really a cool place for 10 euro a night..if you get a chance check it out it is on the hosteling international list
sorry about the typing errors im dead tired