Cappadocia Reflections

It's hard to realize, especially coming from a nation like the US and a culture like that of America, that, in many places, Christianity is not the majority. Far from it. In Turkey, for example, Christians comprise less than 0.3% of the population. For many Turks, the religion exists only in the ruins of abandoned churches, and ruined monastaries. Christians, when encountered, are (generally) treated with compassion and kindness. Turkey is, after all, a secular state.

However, this wasn't always the case. Underground in Cappadocia, among and below the "fairy towers" unique to the region's geologic history of erosion and volcanic ash, are a testament to the lengths Christians once went to defend themselves.

The Christians did not invent the massive cave cities of Cappadocia. The Hittites began the process, digging into the soft rock to create cool, dark, and consistently climactically constant environments for their crafted earthen vessels of food and wine. But it was the Christians who made Cappadocia a site to see.

When Ghazi warriors swept through the lands of Cappadocia, waging war in the name of the Prophet, Christians would retreat beneath the ground, into massive cave cities. These cities are a wonder to behold. They are complete with stables, schools, stone doors that can only be opened from one side, churches, air shafts, and even a private area with a self-contained echo for confessions. 

Monks also carved their abbeys and priories into the rock, painting beautiful frescoes on the interior walls (see pictures) and burying their dead in tombs carved of the same rock which comprised their sanctuaries. 

While some of the more prominent sites are controlled by the ministry of tourism, many smaller spots are not. It's a wonderful feeling, wandering around abandoned houses, sculpted from the very earth you're standing on, with no sounds around but the humming of insects and the swishing of your canteen's water. This free adventuring may not be good for the ruins, but it's a wonder for your sense of scale--your appreciation of magnitude. 

After World War I, Turkey went through a population exchange. Muslim Greeks were moved from their lands across the Aegean to the steppes of Anatolia, while the Christians in places like Cappadpcia were told their new homelands lay in Greece, and not in the caves. Cappadocia's new owners, to their credit, have done a fine job keeping the most important of the ruins preserved. But it is an artificial process. They are custodians--these caves are not their homes. 

However, when you see the scale and scope of the houses, monastaries, fortresses, and chapels which remain in the lands of Cappadocia, you are reassured that a culture which produced such wonders of human grit, will never be wholly forgotten.