Surveying some of the touristic underground cities of Cappadocia (Turkey). Yamaç Ali, Tok Ezgi

SURVEYING SOME OF THE UNDERGROUND CITIES OF CAPPADOCIA (TURKEY)

Ali Yamaç,1 Ezgi Tok1,2

1 OBRUK Cave Research Group; Acikhava Apt. 16/7, Nisantasi, Istanbul, Turkey, ayamac@gmail.com
2 ITU, Istanbul Technical University, EURASIA Earth Sciences Institute

The region known as “Cappadocia” with its ancient name includes the provinces of Nev?ehir and Kayseri in Turkey. Tuffaceous rocks spewing out of the active volcanoes in the late Pliocene and Pleistocene period in this region were used for many different purposes such as houses, barns and churches by the locals for centuries. However, the most interesting of these underground structures are, no doubt, the underground cities. These structures, carved for defensive purposes probably between 7 to 12th centuries, are available almost in each part of Cappadocia. There are more than 200 underground cities hitherto identified in the region. Only a small part of those underground cities have been searched and only a small part of the searched ones had been opened to tourism. Maps of only 12 underground cities, of which some are only sketches, are available. All of the researches carried out in the region from the beginning of the 20th century only cover a specific field or subject and, furthermore, a comprehensive survey or a detailed inventory of underground cities has not been executed in Cappadocia up to now.
As OBRUK Cave Research Group, we had been invited to survey and map four underground cities of Cappadocia. Among them, Derinkuyu and Tatlarin underground cities were previously surveyed and mapped. Mazikoy and St. Mercurius underground cities has not been surveyed before.
Due to our previous underground structure projects, our team had an experience of surveying artificial cavities. Yet, none of those previous projects had tens of chambers at 3,4 even 5 different floors which were connected to each other through long tunnels. We had applied a comprehensive survey study before we began those surveys in Cappadocia. Finally, we could map those four underground cities quite sensitively by a different and fruitful method.

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