Cappadocia Tours
The area referred to as Cappadocia today mainly includes the provinces of Nevsehir, Nigde, Aksaray, Kırsehir and Kayseri. One of the most famous places is Göreme with its cave architecture carved out of the soft tuff. Göreme is considered the center of Cappadocia; the unique complex of rock formations there was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985. Another special feature is a large number of underground cities, the most famous of which are Kaymakli and Derinkuyu, which have been uncovered by archaeologists since the 1960s. Other well-known cities are Ürgüp and Avanos.
The name Cappadocia comes from the Old Persian Katpatuka. The meaning of the word is controversial. Some researchers assume the meaning of the land of beautiful horses, which would be consistent with the fact that ancient sources praise Cappadocia for its horse breeding. Others consider the name to be an Iranianized form of the Hittite Kizzuwatna.
The UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage Site of Göreme-Cappadocia lies in the center of an area of formerly intense volcanic activity, which has had a decisive influence on today's landscape. In the course of the Alpine orogeny, the area of Anatolia, which was dominated by large lake districts and tropical swamp landscapes, was also expanded over the last 100 million years. As the Taurus Mountains continued to rise in the south, large amounts of lava were slowly pushed to the earth's surface in the interior of Anatolia, eventually leading to the formation of the volcanic landscape of Cappadocia.
Significant eruptions have occurred in the vicinity of the volcanoes Erciyes Dagi (3917 m), Hasan Dagi (3268 m) and the Melendiz mountain ranges between the Turkish cities of Kayseri, Aksaray and Nigde, especially since the Neogene, i.e. in a relatively recent geological period. which, in addition to lava, also threw large amounts of volcanic ash into an area of approximately 10,000 km², which today is geologically commonly referred to as the clearance landscape of Cappadocia (Barsch, 1935). The landscape of central Anatolia was completely reshaped by newly formed volcanic mountains and layers of volcanic tuff that filled the lower lying swamp and lake plates.
Over the centuries, these layers of volcanic tuff, created through irregular eruptions, condensed into relatively solid rock, which, depending on the location and eruption horizon, is eroded extremely quickly to this day. As the volcanoes continued to alternate between eruptions and periods of calm, they continued to grow. The transition period between the Pliocene and Pleistocene saw the most violent eruptions, which played a significant role in shaping today's regional landscape. The volcanic activities continued into historical times and were also depicted in Stone Age wall paintings in the ancient settlement of Çatalhöyük (approx. 8000 BC) south of Konya (outside Cappadocia). Until the century before last, active fumaroles and smoke columns were reported from the Erciyes Dagi region near Kayseri, although these have currently come to a standstill.
As a result of volcanic eruptions, the former lake area around Ürgüp and in the valley landscapes of the later Kizilirmak river expanded further. This led to sedimentary deposits of earth and clay, which later became particularly important for the pottery town of Avanos.
4 Tours & Activities
