Ürgüp

Ürgüp

Ürgüp which has been established at the outskirts of the hill named as hill of whishes founded at 20 km in north of Nevsehir province in one of the first settlement areas of Cappadocia region. In the Byzantine period has been called as Osiana, Hagios, Prokopios, in the period of Seljuks as Bashisar and in the period of Ottomans as Burgut Castle. Until the first years of the Republic was called Ürgüp. Ürgüp was the patriarchate center of the Cappadocia region. The Üzümlü Church, Cambazli Church and Sarica Church in Ortahisar which was one of the villages of Ürgüp are the oldest rock churches from the region. Furthermore and Tavsanli Church and Church of Saint Basileious are the spectacular places. Ürgüp which has got the famous cave hotels, wines and hand made carpets is the most important tourism center of the Cappaddocia Region. The old cave houses were restored as a touristy cave hotel without damaging their historic structure. Among the cave hotels some of the cave have been restores as distraction place as discos and bars.

Cappadocia Balloon Tour

Balloon tour of Cappadocia Turkey
Cappadocia Balloon Tour

Everybody wants fly like a bird everytime. That is a big dream of human. Now you can realize your own dream with cappadocia balloon tour. Don't omit join to balloon tour if you planning to go to cappadocia. You can see the deep canyons, valleys and fairy chimneys from the air

Cappadocia balloon tour begins every day at sunrise. Balloon tour takes almost an hour but if you want to join deluxe balloon tour it takes 1.30 hour. There are so many balloon tour company in cappadocia area, you can choose one of them. You can take your own flight certificate after tour. Comfortable clothes and shoes are recommended.

Don't forget your own camera, because you can take the best photos of the world during that journey.

Have a nice journey.. I am sure that you will be enjoy in cappadocia and balloon tour.

Underground Cities
Kaymakli Underground City


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. The first inhabitants of Cappadocia area have opened deep cavities within the volcanic rocks due to escape from the attacks of the wild animals and hard winter conditions and then they have enlarged these cavities according to their daily needs, they opened new cavities and created the underground cities connecting these cavities with tunnel and labyrinths. Later the underground cities were the place of the hiding of the first Christians who escaped from the persecution of the Roman soldiers and were enlarged to able when were necessary an entire city to live and every kind of fixture necessary for the living of the people has been attached. When there wasn't any danger the people living on the ground in case of the danger have hidden in the underground cities. For this reason all the homes at that time were connected to the underground cities with a tunnel.

The earliest record of the name of Cappadocia dates from the late 6th century BC when it appears in the trilingual inscriptions of two early Achaemenid kings, Darius I and Xerxes, as one of the countries (Old Persian dahyu-) which are part of the Persian Empire. In these lists of countries the Old Persian name is Katpatuka, but it is clearly not a native Persian word. The Elamite and Akkadian language versions of the inscriptions contain a similar name from Akkadian katpa "side" (cf. Heb katef) and a chief or ancestor's name, Tuka.[2]

Herodotus tells us that the name of the Cappadocians was applied to them by the Persians, while they were termed by the Greeks "Syrians" or "White Syrians" (Leucosyri). One of the Cappadocian tribes he mentions are the Moschoi, associated by Flavius Josephus with the biblical figure Meshech, son of Japheth, "and the Mosocheni were founded by Mosoch; now they are Cappadocians". AotJ I:6. Also see Ketubot 13:11 in the Mishna.

Cappadocia is also mentioned in the Biblical account given in the book of Acts 2:9, with the Cappadocians being named as one of the people groups hearing the Gospel account from Galileans in their own language on the day of Pentecost shortly after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:5 seems to suggest that the Cappadocians in this account were "God-fearing Jews". See Acts of the Apostles.

Under the later kings of the Persian Empire they were divided into two satrapies, or governments, with one comprising the central and inland portion, to which the name of Cappadocia continued to be applied by Greek geographers, while the other was called Pontus. This division had already come about before the time of Xenophon. As after the fall of the Persian government the two provinces continued to be separate, the distinction was perpetuated, and the name Cappadocia came to be restricted to the inland province (sometimes called Great Cappadocia), which alone will be the focus of this article.

The kingdom of Cappadocia was still in existence in the time of Strabo as a nominally independent state. Cilicia was the name given to the district in which Caesarea, the capital of the whole country, was situated. The only two cities of Cappadocia considered by Strabo to deserve that appellation were Caesarea (originally known as Mazaca) and Tyana, not far from the foot of the Taurus.

TTP Underground City

Cappadocians in popular culture

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In The Simpsons episode "Brother from Another Series", the character Sideshow Bob grudgingly acknowledges the Cappadocians as the only "civilization in history [that] considered 'chief hydrological engineer' a calling". This referred to the Cappadocians being famous for underground cities, although not specifically dams.[7]

Dama the Cappadocian merchant is a major character in several early heroic fantasy stories set around the third century A.D. written by David Drake, Latin scholar and science fiction and fantasy author. The physical and temporal locale was a Roman frontier society in Asia Minor exposed to new conflicts with Christianity and continuing old conflicts with bandits and Persian invaders, where a merchant could experience exotic cultures and find occasion to demonstrate some skill with personal arms.[8]

Wu tang Affiliate Darryl Hill styles himself as "Cappadonna" in reference to this civilization and also goes by the pseudonym "Lebanon don" in reference to Lebanon being a part of this civilization.

In the popular role playing game series Vampire: The Masquerade, a fallen Clan of Vampires known as the Cappadocians played an integral part in the existence of the modern clan known as the Giovanni. Their relation to Cappadocia seems to be only titular and possibly geographical.

The Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia are shown in the film The Stone Merchant.

In the computer game Rome: Total War, by The Creative Assembly, one can recruit a heavy cavalry unit called Cappadocian Cavalry, a Cataphract unit, but with weaker defence and attack, in comparison with the other Cataphracts (for example, the Armenian Cataphract).

Electronic musicians Autechre feature the Cappadocians on the cover of their second album, Amber.

Cappadocia

The Cappadocian Region located in the center of the Anatolian Peninsula, with its valley, canyon, hills and unusual rock formation created as a result of the eroding rains and winds of thousands of years of the level, lava-covered plain located between the volcanic mountains Erciyes, Melendiz and Hasan as well as its troglodyte dwellings carved out of the rock and cities dug out into underground, presents an otherworldly appearance. The eruptions of these mountains which were active volcanoes in geological times lasted until 2 million years ago. A soft tuff layer was formed, 150 m in thickness, by the issuing lavas in the valley surrounded by mountains. The rivers, flood water running down the hillsides of valleys and strong winds eroded the geological formations consisting of tuff on the plateau formed with tuff layers, thus creating bizarre shapes called fairy Chimneys. These take on the names of mushroom shaped, pinnacled, capped and conic shaped formations. The prehistoric settlements of the area are Koskhoyuk (Kosk Mound) in Nigde, Aksaray Asikli Mound, Nevsehir Civelek cave and, in the southeast, Kultepe, Kanis and Alisar in the environs of Kayseri. This area with unusual topographic characteristics was regarded as sacred and called, in the Scythian/khatti language, as "Khepatukha" meaning "the Country of the People of the Chief God Hepat" The tablets called Cappadocian Tablets and the Hittite works of art in Alisar are of the important remains dating from 2000s B.C. After 1200s B.C., the Tabal principality, of the Khatti Branches of Scythians, became strong and founded the Kingdom of Tabal. Following the Late Hittite and Persian aras, the Cappadocian Kingdom was established in 332 B.C. During the Roman era the area served as a shelter for the early escaping Christians.

There are also several underground cities used by early Christians as hideouts in Cappadocia.